Archbishop of the Christian Action Faith Ministries, Nicolas Duncan Williams has reacted to The New Crusading GUIDE’s publication for Friday, 4th February, 2011 headlined “I LEAKED THE UNEDITED VIDEO TO ARCHBISOP DUNCAN WILLIAMS’ & ‘ARCHBISHOP DUNCAN WILLAMS and “The Enemies of the Nation Story”.

A letter, received by the paper from legal counsel for the Archbishop stated his position on the matter. We hereby publish the full rejoinder unedited from Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams:

“I LEAKED THE UNEDITED VIDEO TO ARCHBISOP DUNCAN WILLIAMS’ & ‘ARCHBISHOP DUNCAN WILLAMS and “The Enemies of the Nation Story” – A REJOINDER

We write for and on the instructions of His Eminence The Archbishop Nicholas Duncan – Williams, who is our client.

Our client’s attention has been drawn to two headlined publications in the Friday 4th February, 2011 edition of the ‘New Weekend Crusading Guide’ (Vol. 3 No.5) captioned above and is very aggrieved about the said publications on the grounds that the same contained grievous factual inaccuracies and distortions and is couched in a manner which gives the rather false and misleading impression that the Arch – Bishop is involved in the allegations of corruption, bribery, tax evasion and theft of public revenue which has now attained public infamy as the ‘ Enemies of the nation’ saga.

In our client’s view, the publication also sought to give the erroneous impression that information which he became privy was of a highly secretive nature and had been wrongly “leaked” to our client when the information was already in the public domain and the interview only value was the confirmation of the authenticity of the tape and the matters captured thereon.

Consequently, His Eminence the Arch – Bishop has instructed us to send you this rejoinder, which we hereby do, and to demand that you grant him his constitutional right to have this rejoinder published with the same prominence as the publications under reference.

It is our instructions that the true background facts to this matter are as follows:

Sometime late last week, our client’s attention was drawn to the intense public interest generated by a video recording that was alleged to have captured public and civil servants and serving officers of CEPS in corrupt practices, bribery, evasion of customs duties and taxes, abuse and misuse of office to improperly obtain exemption from the payment of customs duties and theft of goods from the Tema Harbour (which is now famously known as the ‘Enemies of the Nation’ tape) which captivated the attention of the nation.

Our client as a public spirited person, one of this nation’s senior clergy and a moral voice in the nation took keen interest in the issue and started making enquires to ascertain the existence of the tape and the truth of the matters alleged as captured by the tape.

In the course of our client’s enquiry, he spoke to Mr. Paul Adom Otchere, who confirmed that he had interviewed Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, the Journalist who made the tape for his ‘Good Evening Ghana’ program in which he insisted that the recording on the tape was authentic and informed our client that the interview would be broadcast in a few days.

Our client informed us that as he was billed to travel out of the country, he requested Mr. Otchere to make available for his viewing a copy of the recorded interview, to which request Mr. Otchere reluctantly acceded.

Our client informed us that his interest in the tape had all to do with the gravity of the allegations of corruption, break down of moral integrity alleged to have been captured on the tape which alleged the complacency of some of the nation’s institutions and public officers and nothing to do with his relation with any individual or corporate personality. To our client, the allegations bothered on national crisis and he was keen to get to the bottom of it.

It is useful at this point to note that our client is not only one of the key Christian leaders of this nation but the chairman of the National Association of Christian and Charismatic Churches (NACCC) an association of some 250 charismatic churches spread across the nation who amongst others have been in the forefront of a campaign for moral uprightness, integrity for office holders, be it public or private.

Our client therefore was in duty bound to take a keen interest in the allegations and their truthfulness.

It has been alleged in the publication under reference that our client was handed the unedited copy of the recording of the interview. This is not true. What our client viewed was very obviously an edited copy of the recording of the interview which showed only Mr. Adom Otchere and an empty chair.

The Publication has also sought to give the impression that our client’s interest in the tape and the request to view the interview was dictated by some family connection to some of the principals of a company known as Servistar Company.

Our client would like to set the record straight that he has no family connection with any of the principals of Servistar Company and is not an uncle to anyone connected with Servistar. Moreover, our client has no relation or connection, either personal or business with any of the persons alleged to be complacent in the allegations of wrong doing.

It is factual that our client knows two of the officers of Servistar Company, who coincidentally are members of our client’s church but so does he know, has met and has had previous personal interaction with Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, the Journalist who recorded the tape sometime in the past. Where he have him a copy of his investigation into the Osu Children’s Home.

By far our client’s greatest grievance is the way the publication was slanted to give the misleading impression that secretive information which caused prejudice to the Mr. Anas was wrongly made available to our client when the information was just an interview confirming the authenticity of the recording and was meant to be broadcast the next day in any event.

Our client also decries the rather sensational and mischievous manner to which the whole publication was written and which gave the erroneous impression to the uncritical reader as if he was integral part the allegations of wrong doing and therefore one of the ‘Enemies of the Nation’.

Our client has instructed that we underscore his commitment to his calling to be a moral voice in this nation and to champion the things that would bind us together as one people and advocate the Godliness in our public and private lives as a people.

EDITOR’S NOTE: WE WELCOME THE SWIFT REJOINDER FROM HIS EMINENCE, ARCH-BISHOP NICHOLAS DUNCAN WILLIAMS ON OUR ‘ENEMIES OF THE NATION’ PUBLICATIONS. A REJOINDER, AS HIS SOLLICITORS RIGHTLY STATED, IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL BUT IT MUST BE STATED THAT, NONE OF OUR PUBLICATIONS ALLEGED ACTS OF CORRUPTON OR CRIMINALITY BY HIS EMINENCE.