Head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has slammed the Daily Graphic for 'deliberately' churning out a publication he claims was meant to put the NDC in a bad light, saying the state-owned daily is behaving like a “gutter newspaper”.

Dr. Tony Aidoo was reacting to the banner headline: ‘Hold Elections in November - CRC Final Report Recommends’, which was published in Tuesday, November 29th edition of the Daily Graphic.

According to the story, the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) has recommended that the presidential and parliamentary election should be conducted in November in subsequent election years after 2012 to facilitate smooth transitional processes.

The Commission further proposed the expunging of the indemnity clauses of the 1992 Constitution which provide coup makers immunity from prosecution.

However, Wednesday, November 30th edition of the Daily Dispatch newspaper said the state-owned newspaper got it all wrong, adding that contrary to the report, the CRC rather recommended that the Indemnity clauses in the 1992 constitution should be retained.

The indemnity clauses of the 1992 Constitution provides coup makers immunity from prosecution.

Section 34 of the transitional provisions of the 1992 Constitution indemnifies all coup makers and their functionaries against any liability for acts and omissions committed during their administration.

The opposition NPP then and other Rawlings critics contended that the former military ruler and his cohorts used the framers of the constitution to ‘sneak’ that portion into the supreme document of the country to perpetually protect them from future prosecutions.

Speaking to the issue in an interview on Radio Gold, Dr. Tony Aidoo described the story as a fabrication intended to malign the NDC government.

“…when I read the story in the graphic (Tuesday), I knew it could not be true but nonetheless I was annoyed not only because it is a long standing paper, but because it’s a state owned paper. It is being used as a propaganda paper against the NDC government. It has behaved like a gutter newspaper…The deliberate publication of this falsehood is for people to find that there is no provision…of the indemnity clause, then they will say that government did it deliberately. I think this is wicked and even criminal for them to do that…I think it’s about time the NMC (National Media Commission) did its duty especially on publication of the state owned media…” he added.

Dr. Tony Aidoo also requested the NMC to demand that the Editor of the Daily Graphic name the source of its publication.

“The editor must be made to name the source; they deliberately wanted to jeopardize the public acceptance…it’s a total fabrication. I expect the Daily Graphic to substantiate the publication it made in yesterday (Tuesday)’s edition and apologise. It will be an admission that nobody is infallible. It will also be an honourable thing to do…," he added.