£350K saga: We won’t apologise to Otumfuo – Daily Guide

The Daily Guide newspaper has said it owes no apology to a group called Kumasi Youth Association for publishing a story that suggested their monarch Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was involved in a £350,000 money laundering scandal in the UK.

Some members of the youth group on Wednesday, 18 October 2017 locked up the Kumasi office of the newspaper in protest to the papers publication.

The group threatened not to open the office until the paper retracts the story and renders an unqualified apology to the Asantehene and his subjects.

But speaking to Class News, chief news editor of the Daily Guide Alhaji A.R. Gomda said they do not owe anyone an apology.

“Apologise for what?”, he quizzed.

“I wonder if they can pinpoint to any act of disrespect to Asanteman or Otumfuo. We only did a story and we were very careful about this. We respect our chieftaincy institutions. Kumasi is one of our key areas so we are very careful about the sensibilities of the people in Asanteman. We are Ghanaians, we respect our chiefs, we wouldn’t do anything which will undermine the integrity of our chieftaincy institution. They should come and pinpoint any aspect of the story which undermines the integrity of Asanteman. They cannot pinpoint. It was just a straight forward story,” Alhaji Gomda stated.

Prior to the lock-up, there had been statements issued by groups affiliated to the Ashanti Region warning the media to be circumspect in their reportage concerning the alleged money laundering case which was first reported by UK press.

It came to light when a staff of Ghana International Bank in the UK got sacked for depositing 350,000 pounds into the Asante monarch’s account without going through the necessary procedures for such deposits. Mr Arthur had said the money was handed to him in cash by the Asante monarch.

The lock-up of the Daily Guide’s office left workers of the paper stranded, Adehyee FM's Owuoahene Addei Monumkum said on Wednesday.