'I have not defamed you' - Prof. Addae-Mensah replies lawyer William Fugar

Former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, has refuted claims by a top lawyer that he defamed him in his autobiography, entitled "My Life: A Historical Narrative."

The lawyer in question William Fugar, a managing partner at Fugar & Company, had late last year demanded a retraction of some claims in the said book failure for which he was going to seek legal redress.

In an open letter dated 1 January 2024, Addae-Mensah, through his lawyer Azanne Kofi Akainyah of A&A Law Consult responded to Fugar denying the claim and suggesting to Fugar to allow peace to prevail in the face of evidence that he (Addae-Mensah) relied on to make his claims.

“I refer to your letter dated 21 December 2023 sent to my client Professor lvan Addae-Mensah following the publication of his autobiography My Life – A Historical Narrative. Your letter was copied to Digibooks Ghana Ltd, the publisher of the book, and for some reason, also to Justice Sophia Akuffo.

“You have stated that some words at page 415 of the autobiography are defamatory. My client denies that such is the case. The words referred to proceedings before Cecilia Koranteng-Addow J, at the Accra High Court in 1979, and are to the effect that; ‘Mr Willie Fugar abandoned the case and his clients on 11 April. The case was therefore thrown out when it came up for hearing on 17 April,” wrote Lawyer Azanne Kofi Akainyah in his reply.

“You claim that these words have, since they were published, ‘lowered our client in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally and, in particular, have cause[d] our client to be treated with abhorrence, derision, disdain, odium, opprobrium and scorn’, not only in Ghana but in Africa and the world at large. In this regard, it is pertinent to point out that the autobiography was published only in October 2023,” Akainyah’s response to the demand notice further read.

In explaining the basis for his claims, the Emeritus Professor of Chemistry cited a Daily Graphic Report as well as portions of a documentary on former president Hila Limann as having the same facts which have at no point been contested by Fugar.

“Firstly, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah bears no animosity or malice to your client and does not seek to question his integrity. The autobiography is a historical narrative that in part discusses the internecine machinations in the PNP [People’s National Party] in the hectic period of 1979 during the period of transition to civilian rule, when some party members sought to prevent Mr Egala and Dr Limann from taking office. It is not current affairs. It is a distant history.

“Secondly, my client recognises and accepts the eminence of your client as a legal professional with an established and solid reputation built over many years, particularly since 1979. He is therefore shocked by your contention that in the short period since his book was published … Do you have any right-thinking people who would consider that your client is ‘a negligent and carefree lawyer who does not take his job seriously’? In my client’s opinion, any person who can come to such a perverse conclusion is not ‘right thinking’.

“Thirdly, in writing the autobiography, my client, an academic of repute, relied on records in the public domain. Indeed, it is ironic that you demand that he should publish a retraction and an apology in the Daily Graphic when it is [in] this very same Daily Graphic which [were] published (presumably accurately), at page nine of its edition of 12 April 1979, the words:

“ ‘Counsel abandons case against Egala, Limann

“A counsel yesterday abandoned a motion for an injunction filed against Mr Imoru Egala. Chairman and Dr Hilla Limann, presidential candidate, both of the People’s National Party (PNP), at a High Court in Accra. Mr William Fugar Edem had filed the motion … seeking to restrain Mr Egala and Dr Limann from acting or holding themselves up as chairman and presidential candidate for the party until the determination of a writ of summons filed against them. The abandonment was promoted by the listing of the case for early hearing given the urgency of it …’”

Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah’s lawyers to this end explain that: “The Daily Graphic, particularly at that time, was a mass-circulation paper. In his research, my client did not find any evidence that your client challenged the words in the Daily Graphic, either at the time they were published or at any other time in the decades thereafter.

“Indeed, the words were substantially repeated by my client at page 36 of his biography of Hilla Limann [which] was published in 2016. Yet again, there is no record that any challenge was made to that publication.

“In the circumstances, it comes as a surprise to my client that a notice of demand has been issued to him in this instance.

“This is an open letter in which my client unhesitatingly affirms the good reputation of your client. It should be sufficient, therefore, if Mr Fugar would treat this matter in the same manner as he has previously treated the words in the Daily Graphic and the biography of Hilla Limann,” Lawyer Azanne Kofi Akainyah‘s letter stated.

SARA

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