"Statesman" Editor Fails Law Exam?

...Gabby Otchere-Darko’s name missing from ‘Pass’ List

The results of the Ghana Law School Final Bar Examinations were released and displayed on the School’s Notice Board last Friday.

Conspicuously missing from the list was the name of one of the ‘Class of 2003’s most famous students, Gabby Otchere-Darko, the pompous, loud-mouthed Editor of Nana Akufo-Addo’s ‘Statesman’ newspaper that has developed an acerbic and confrontational attitude towards the NDC, its officials and supporters.


Mr. Otchere-Darko’s name did not appear on the list of students to write referred papers either.


It is the practice of the Ghana Law School and indeed all tertiary institutions throughout the country to put up the names only of the successful candidates and referred candidates after the examinations.


The absence of Mr. Otchere-Darko’s name from the advertised list could therefore mean one of two things - either he failed the examinations completely, or there was a typographical error that resulted in the omission of his name from the list.


Discreet enquiries by "The Ghana Palaver" have however confirmed that there was no typographical error.


Gabby Otchere-Darko attained public notoriety when he put the face of NDC flagbearer Professor John Evans Atta-Mills on the body of a poodle and published it on the front page of the ‘Statesman’, referring to the learned Law Professor as a ‘poodle’ of ex-President Rawlings.

When the Ethics Committee of the National Media Commission attempted to call him to order with a request for him to withdraw the offensive picture and story, he refused, calling the Commission, which is headed by one of Ghana’s most respected lawyers, Nutifafa Kuenyehia, unprintable names in the process.


Gabby also sometimes appears on the Metro TV Programme, ‘Good Morning Ghana’, and is unabashedly uncharitable to, and contemptuous of, the NDC on the Programme.


He has a number of court cases pending against him, one of which involves some British visa scandal, and some emanating from a scathing publication in the ‘Statesman’ that allegedly contained purely fabricated and libellous statements against former Special Assistants in the erstwhile NDC Government.


Rumours are also rife about his numerous encounters with the British justice system during his sojourn in that country and before he was brought down by Nana Akufo-Addo to do the hatchet job on the NDC.


If indeed it is true that Gabby has failed his Bar Exams, then it means he will have to repeat the class for a year before he tries his luck again.