.....As Citi FM Leads Him Astray

Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, has been deceived by a reporter of Citi FM, Abdul Karim Ntonagmah, into attacking businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome. Continuing his evidence-in-chief at an Accra Fast Track Court on Monday, Alfred Woyome told the court that money he deposited in safe deposits with Prudential bank for the purpose of helping the then NPP government take delivery of oil from Libya, which was to be sold and the profit used to finance the putting up of stadia for the CAN 2008 soccer tourney in Ghana was ordered returned to him by Mpiani on his (Woyome’s) request since the purpose for which it was intended was discontinued.

Reporting court proceedings for his station, Citi FM, Abdul Karim Naatogmah, lied that Mr. Alfed Agbesi Woyome told the Accra High Court that he paid 500,000 US dollars into the GNPC account at Prudential Bank to finance the initial projects of CAN 2008 and that the payment was done on the orders of then Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpianim.

Without verifying the truth of the reportage, Kwadwo Mpiani, on Citi FM’s Eye Witness news programme attacked Woyome, calling him a liar.

“He is lying. I am not aware of any such thing…definitely, I have not done that and I am not aware of that…I don’t know whether he has perjured himself in court or not but what he said in court, I am saying it’s a lie as far as I am concerned,” the former Chief of Staff told the radio station.

To accentuate their lie, Citi FM did not only publish the blatant lie on their website, citifmonline, but also went on to publish Mpiani’s faux pas on it. The lie soon got space on other websites, notably peacefmonline, spyghana and ghanaweb.

The calculated lie about what Alfred Woyome said in court is coming on the heels of several other skewed media reportage about the saga since it broke out meant to give the businessman a bad name.

The media, in blatant disregard of the fact that a an accused person is presumed innocent until pronounced guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction has through this kind of false reportage succeeded in convincing some unsuspecting Ghanaians that he is guilty of defrauding the state even though no court has pronounced him guilty.