Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings jailed me - Harruna Attah

Veteran Ghanaian journalist and former High Commissioner to Namibia, H.E Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah has stated that former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings is the reason he and the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako were sentenced to a 30-day jail term by an Accra High Court.

He said though he wrote several stories about former President JJ Rawlings during his tenure, he (Rawlings) never capitalised on his power to oppress him but received several lawsuits from his wife.

“In through my writings which I did, I wrote a lot about the former president and to his eternal glory, he did not use his office to harm me. I went to jail, not because of him but it was his wife who sued me and Kweku Baako”, he explained.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako and Alhaji Harruna Attah on July 23, 1998, were sentenced to a 30-day jail term by an Accra High Court following a suit filed against them by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

Mr. Baako was then the Editor of The Guide while Alhaji Harruna Attah was the Editor of The Statesman.

Mrs. Rawlings allegedly dragged the two editors to court on the grounds of defamation and sought an interim injunction to restrain them from publishing any further defamatory material about her.

In the course of the trial, she filed another contempt charge against the Editors and had the court throw them behind bars for 30 days each, after which she failed to pursue the substantive case.

Alhaji Harruna Attah is married to Nana Yaa Agyeman-Attah, the younger sister of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and in an interview with Paul Adom Otchere said the two families are now living in peace because the issue has been settled.