A leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwamena Ahwoi has filed a writ against the ‘Evening News’ newspaper for defamation. Mr Ahwoi is seeking damages for a story published in the Monday, September 17 edition of the newspaper, accusing him of using his former position as Local Government Minister, to direct all the 110 district assemblies in the country to pay 500,000 Cedis each to organise a send-off party for him.
According to the story, Mr Ahwoi issued the directive was issued when he was was moving to head the Ministry of Regional and Economic Integration. Mr Ahwoi denied the story but says he decided to go to court after a series of libelous stories about him were published in the ‘Evening News’.
Claiming that the Evening News has an agenda to disparge and do irreparable damage to his name and reputation, Mr Ahwoi said many of the investigations into his stewardship has been completed without adverse findings against him. Those involved in the suit are the Editor of the paper, two journalists and the publishers, New Times Corporation.
Mr Ahwoi claims that some unidentified forces are selectively releasing information he gave to some investigative teams to the ‘Evening News’ to tarnish his image after failing to find evidence of wrong doing against him.
