The Ghanaian Chronicle

"Coomson vrs Tsatsu, Peprah. The battle is now joined" is the screaming headline of the Chronicle. The paper reports that a huge legal battle now looms following the issuing of fresh writs by Nana Kofi Coomson challenging the action of the Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and the "criminal negligence and ignorance" of the 10-member board in the recent derivatives deal that has brought a $ 40 million debt to the nation.

According to the paper, Kofi Coomson who withdrew his unprecedented ex-parte application last month amidst groans of public disappointment almost immediately served the writs urging an Accra High Court to check what he described in an interview as "the costly guinea-pig experimentation with the tax payers money by a well-meaning but misguided zealot".

Coomson says, he thought it was a tragedy that a "public officer who has systematically and single-handedly injured the nation's financial stability appears to enjoy immunity from the government and the Presidency.

The publisher of the Ghanaian Chronicle is seeking in his statement of claim, a restraining order from the court preventing the sale of one of the GNPC's rigs, Discovery 511 and any other state asset for the purpose of liquidating the indebtedness of GNPC to the French banking group, Societe Generale, reports the paper.

In another front-page story, Kofi Coomson explains why he withdrew the initial action. According to him, a series of events led to his withdrawal of the ex-parte application he filed against the Board of the GNPC and the other Ministers mentioned in last month's suit.

He disclosed that Mr. Justice Gyamera Tawiah listed the case for hearing, but he had an accident that very day and could, therefore not go to court. He said he and his lawyers raced to the Registrar's office for a re-assignment and had it sent to Justices R.K. Akpaloo's court same day because of the element of urgency underlying the ex-parte affidavit.

When the case was called, Mr Akpaloo advised that Coomson "go and put your house in order" and come back at 10:30 am the next day. Following some technical loopholes the judge detected that the defendants should be sued with their official titles, the paper reports.

Another headline on the front-page of the paper is 'Obed's missing 100 million cedis case takes a new turn'. The story says Counsel for the two former bodyguards of Dr. Obed Yoa Asamoah, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, will today pray an Accra Regional Tribunal that leave be granted to file an appeal out of time to challenge the jurisdiction of the tribunal.