The man who, during the NDC Kafo Didi demonstration last year mounted the platform to allege President Kufour dipped his hands into State coffers and made away with ?1.5 billion cash for his personal use, has this week launched legal suits against two newspapers for allegedly injuring his hard-earned reputation.

Having already filed a libel suit against the Daily Guide as reported in Thursday?s issue of this paper, former Deputy Defence Minister, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has now turned his attention to the Editor-in-Chief of The Statesman. The Statesman?s Editor-in-Chief, Asare Otchere-Darko was on Thursday served with a High Court writ informing him that, like the Daily Guide?s Gina Ama Blay, he is being sued for libel by the NDC stalwart along with the publishers of The Statesman. The suit refers to an article in the October 15 edition of The Statesman which alleged that Dr. Aidoo had been deported from the United Kingdom after overstaying his visa.

Dr. Aidoo?s claim is that he was never deported from the UK, and the story, as carried in The Statesman ?greatly inured his reputation? which he had earned over a period of years as a politician and a public figure.?

Dr. Aidoo claims that, like the Daily Guide story that he was thrown out of the Professional Part 1 class of the Ghana School of Law, The Statesman?s front page headline article ?was calculated to embarrass him and bring him into public ridicule and contempt.?

The legal action against The Statesman comes two days after The Daily Guide received a similar writ claiming that Dr. Aidoo was libeled in two articles late last year. Dr. Aidoo also took exception to that paper?s October 2003 claim that Aidoo had told police that an illegal firearm found at his house had been given to him by former President JJ Rawlings. This accusation refuted by Aidoo, apparently damaged his relationship ?as a friend and colleague of the former President.?