Ex-Minister Sues Daily Guide For ?1bn

Former minister for employment and social welfare, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni has filed a writ an Accra High court against Western Publications Limited, publishers of the Daily Guide newspaper and Messrs Baffour Awuah and Associates a chartered accounting firm. They are to be jointly charged for defamation arising from publishing what Alhaji Mohammed says are libellous words against him.

For that the NDC member of parliament for Kumbungu is demanding an amount of one billion cedis as damages from Baffour Awuah and Associates, publishers of the Daily Guide, the papers editor Gina Ama Blay and reporter Baby Ansabah. The former minister for employment and social welfare who has recently assumed front page prominence as a potential running mate for the NDC will plead with the court to examine the extent of injury that has been done his position thus lowering this status in public.

He is also praying the court to issue an injunction that will restrain the defendants, their servants and their agents from publishing or causing to be published similar words which might be defamatory of him. The former minister held a press conference Wednesday May 19 to debunk allegations made by the newspaper and attributed to the auditors to the effect that he had been involved in a gargantum financial scandal while he was serving as the minister. He signalled readiness to seek legal redress at the appropriate time.

Even though reporter, Baby Ansabah had admitted at the press conference that the publication had not cross-checked because it had no reason to doubt the work of auditors, he declined calls at the meeting for forgiveness insisting that the Daily Guide stood by its publication.