Press statement from NPP UK

RE: ALLEGED LEAKED TAPE OF “SAMMY AWUKU”

Our attention has been drawn to the fact that there is a fraudulent tape recording circulating within some social media and some radio stations purporting to be that of the voice of Sammy Awuku and some UK NPP members.

We of the NPP UK would like to state categorically that there was no meeting between Sammy Awuku and the NPP UK Branch when he was last in the United Kingdom. Sammy Awuku came to UK on a private family visit in the middle of July. At the time he was here there was no meeting of NPP UK as we held our meeting on the last Sunday of July at a time he had returned to Ghana. Our meetings are held on the last Sunday of every month. It is therefore not possible that any such meeting could have taken place and therefore any tape purporting to come from such a meeting is a fabricated one. Whatever the intention of the perpetrators of this act of defamation, it is intended to create unnecessary tension in the political atmosphere at a time when the entire nation is waiting for the Supreme Court verdict.

This circulating tape is a fraudulent one intended to hurt and denigrade Sammy Awuku with the intention of getting him in trouble with the Supreme Court again and the social media or radio stations feeding on this must desist from it forthwith. The source is not authentic and certainly fabricated. It has no basis and must therefore be condemned.

We have also read with utter shock and disbelief that the entire Ghana government machinery has jumped on this disingenuous bandwagon and is allegedly planning to investigate this fabrication. We hope sincerely that this news report is not true. Otherwise we will hold it to confirm our belief that this fraudulent act is being sponsored pathetically by the government and trumpeted by its rented press. This will be seen as an act of desperation with the government clutching at a last straw with the intention of trying to influence the minds of the judiciary, which in itself amounts to obstruction and perversion of the course of justice.

The abuse of technology of this kind by certain groups of people to tarnish the image of certain people in the country for parochial political gains is becoming a social and political canker and must be rooted out. Recordings of such fabricated transcripts is a crime and the distribution and well as playing them are equally criminal. This same infamous technology abuse has been used to attack people from all walks of life including politicians and ministers of religion with the intention of reducing them in the estimation of the right thinking members of society.

We call on the National Media Commission and the entire civil society to condemn such act of technology abuse in the media and some media houses dwelling on these acts of defamation and or allowing themselves to be used as echo chambers. Press freedom is a virtue that must be embraced and respected and we should not allow some adventurous people to abuse it.

HAYFORD ATTA-KRUFI

CHAIRMAN

NPP UK