The Minister for Economic Planning and Regional Co-operation, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has expressed his determination to take a private tabloid, ‘The Ghanaian Democrat’ to court.

This follows a publication by the newspaper a few days ago that the two-week leave granted the Minister by President J. A. Kufuor was actually not a period of rest as purported but a dismissal from office.

In that report the Democrat further alleged that the Minister had been dismissed from office as a result of the loss of some money in his outfit. Speaking on GTV’s Breakfast Show with Kate Addo yesterday, the Minister, who intimated that he was pleased to address the issue, debunked that publication.

Dr. Nduom said “there is no truth whatsoever in the allegation, and they know it”, referring to the publishers. He opined that the story had been done out of malice, revealing that it had injured his character.

The Minister further divulged that as a result of the harm done to his person, he had scheduled a meeting with his legal counsel to pursue a civil suit against the newspaper. In his view, when that is done it would prevent others from erroneously thinking they could willfully injure the character of persons and go Scot-free.

The Regional Co-operation Minister did not hide his amazement at the fact that though a substantive minister was fully in charge of his ministry whilst he was away, no attempt was made whatsoever to contact him for clarification.

Explaining why he went on leave, Dr. Nduom volunteered that he normally took a six-week leave from office every year around July to take a breather from official duties. He continued that during such breaks he did medical checks with his family, spent time with them, visited places of interest and generally did things he didn’t normally do, such as the fully grown beard he was wearing.

He said this time round prevailing conditions had necessitated that he makes it two weeks, during which time he even had to work. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom disclosed that as the Exim Bank in the United States had lost faith in Ghana, and declared it was no longer going to do business with the nation, due to the Quality Grain scandal and the country joining HIPC, he was instructed by the President to meet with the bank’s leadership.

Dr. Nduom further revealed that as a result of fruitful deliberations with the bank, he had been able to secure its commitment to Ghana, divulging that the bank had itself declared Ghana as its largest market in Africa.