Metro TV isn’t a public institution, you are obliged to answer me - Togbe Afede’s aide responds to Council of State

Dr. Apertorgbor replies Council of State's ‘go to Metro TV’ directive

‘Go to Metro TV’, Council of State to applicant asking for info on Togbe

Metro TV is not a public institution, Dr. Apertorgbor to Council of State

An aide to Togbe Afede XIV, Dr Elikplim Kwabla Apertorgbor, has responded to a directive by the Council of State to go to Metro TV for information he requested on the travel allowances paid to members of the Council of State from 2017 to 2019.

According to him, the Council’s directive for him to go to Metro TV for the information he requested was not good enough since it is the only body that can give him access to the proper records.

In a letter to the Council of State, sighted by GhanaWeb, Dr Apertorgbor indicated that the refusal of the council to grant him the information he is requesting violates the Right to Information (RTI) Act

“… contrary to your directive to me to contact Metro TV and Paul Adom-Otchere for the information I had requested, Metro TV and Paul Adom Otchere are not public service institution or official/servant, respectively."

“Besides, the information I requested for falls constitutionally, officially and exclusively within your permit and custody, and I deserve rightfully to be served as well. Further, you are obliged under the relevant provisions of the RTI (2019) Act 989 to be fair to all manner of people including me, just as you have freely done with alacrity to Mr Paul Adom-Orchere,” portions of the latter.

The Council of State referred Togbe Afede XIV, Dr Elikplim Kwabla Apertorgbor, to Section 21 of the Right to Information Act 2019, Act 989, in response to a request the former filed to it.

Apertogbor on June 10, 2022, wrote to the Council of State to request for information on “travel allowances paid to members of the Council of State from 2017 to 2019.

The purpose of the request filed under the Right to Information Act, according to the applicant, “is to verify a claim made by Paul Adom-Otchere that Togbe Afede XIV was paid for travelling from Ho to attend meetings for the period he served as a member of the Council of State.”

But in a response dated Monday, June 13, 2022, the Council of State directed the petitioner to seek his request from Metro TV as it had already made the requested information available to the media house.

“Please be informed that the information requested is readily available by another public institution, Metro TV, who requested for same on the 8th of June 2022 and have since put it into the public domain."

“Per provisions of Section 21, of the Right to Information Act 2019, Act 989, you are directed to contact Metro TV for the said information,” the response signed by the Finance and Administration Director of the Council of State, Stephen Blay, said.

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