JUDGE CAUTIONS ‘CHRONICLE’

The Presiding Judge of a Takoradi High Court, Justice Ofosu Quartey, has cautioned the Ghanaian Chronicle a private newspaper in Accra, for what he observed as its persistent failure to accurately report court proceedings. According to the Judge, he could not understand why Chronicle persistently reports that the plaintiff in the case of W.A.O.P.P. Limited Versus Ministry of Trade, Industry, PSD and PSI and the Attorney General has sued Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, the former Minister of Trade and a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He made this submission in a press release made available to The Crusading GUIDE in Accra.

He explained that at a point in time he took his time to explain to The Chronicle reporter that the plaintiff had only sued two defendants - the Ministry of Trade, Industry, PSD and PSI and the Attorney General. He maintained that after the explanation, he could not understand why the paper proceeded with the headline “Why I Sued Alan”, a statement attributed to the plaintiff.

“The plaintiff in the present case has never sued Alan Kyeremanten and in fact, in his evidence in court, he lauded the efforts of the former Minister in ensuring that he was paid for the work he did”.

The State Attorney, Patrick Akuffo rubbished the publication, adding that The Chronicle had a hidden agenda to undermine Alan Kyeremanten – and urged it to “leave the court out of your dirty politics”.

When the Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Amua-Sekyi, was queried about the publication, he admitted that he found it in a bad taste and advised The Chronicle to be fair in its reportage, since Alan had not been sued.