The Ga District Chief Executive (DCE), Hon. Samuel N.A. Attoh, has described as vivacious, malicious, vexatious and without merit, a front page story in an Accra private newspaper, The Search light purporting that he had taken a ?1 million bribe from Miss Comfort Dapaah for her release to the Pokuase Police.

He pointed out that he did not know the reported Comfort Dapaah, let alone about her arrest.

Hon. Attoh contended that the story, in question, is politically motivated to destroy him. The DCE made this known to The Independent in an interview in reaction to the reported story.

"I do not order the police to do their work. If Madam Augustina received any one million cedis, it is for her to respond" the worried DCE pointed out.

According to the DCE, Madam Augustina came to him one day with a gentleman, who wanted to win gravels at Katakor.

However, he did not have genuine documents, so he insisted that the gentlemen submitted the required documents as stipulated by the Ga District Assembly (GDA) byelaws before he undertook the job. However, since the gentleman could not produce the document, he has surfaced till today.

The DCE stressed further that he was not in charge of the winning of sand, stone or gravels, and so does not handle such matters.

According to the Ga DCE, a Journalist from The Searchlight approached him one day with a case pertaining to rave-winning in-charge.

He explained that he was at a loss when the Journalist went out with the defamatory materials.

When The Independent contacted the Pokuase police station, the station officer, Chief Inspector Akufu, stated that no suspect had been arrested by the police in connection with gravel winning recently as purported by the paper.

He pointed out that the police do not also take instructions from the DCE or a Minister as to how to go about their job.

Readers may recall that The Searchlight " in its October 29-November, 2003 edition published a lead story with the caption "another challenge for zero tolerance of corruption. Kufuor's men in bribery scandal!"

The story sought to create the impression that Hon. Attoh received ?1 million bribe as a condition for releasing a female business women, one Comfort Dapaah, from the Pokuase police station over her arrest for winning gravel at Kutunse in the Ga district.