A-G Denies Speaking To Enquirer Newspaper

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr Martin A.B.K. Amidu, on Thursday denied talking to the Enquirer Newspaper reporter, Mr Samuel Abane Anaba over the Gbewaa Civil Engineers Limited court case.

Mr Amidu said in July 2011, the reporter called him on telephone to interview him on an alleged refusal to pay a judgment debt and other issues he claimed were fed to him by the Chief Executive of Gbewaa Civil Engineers Limited.


The A-G and Minister was reacting to a front page publication in the Enquirer Newspaper by the said Anaba under the title “Tussle over Judgment Debt…”, in a statement copied to Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday.


The statement said Mr Amidu told the reporter that the matter was pending in a court of competent jurisdiction and it would be contempt of the court to grant him an interview.


It said: “Samuel Abane Anaba pretentiously tried to cross examining me by putting several allegations to me which I refused to respond to on the grounds that the matter was pending in court. He was adamant and so I broke off the interview.


“I have since July 2011 not spoken to Samuel Abane Anaba again. It smacks of professional and ethical misconduct for him to attribute to me statements of any slanderous allegations against any of the plaintiffs in the case which I never made to him after his interrogation of me in July and his publication of October 7, 2011”.

Gbewaa Civil Engineers Limited and another, have a case pending in a superior court against the Attorney-General.


Mr Amidu said the due process of law and fairness required that the issues were not prejudiced by media reportage before the court had the opportunity to make an impartial determination of the case.


He said: “I wish to state once again that the continued publications of matters which seek to prejudice the fair hearing and determination of this case constitutes contempt of court.


“Whosoever is responsible of the series of publications on this pending suit in the Enquirer Newspaper since Monday 20th June 2011 seeking to prejudice a fair disposal of the case ought to be advised to desist from those acts of contempt of court before the law catches up with him. “I refused to be drawn into any media trial of the case commenced by Gbewaa Civil Engineers Limited against the Attorney-General while the matter is pending in court,” he said.