Rejoinder: Mr. President wake up, Lord Commey is collapsing your government

My attention has been drawn to a defamatory publication on your website about me under the above headline and I want to put on record that I am highly offended by the publication and I demand an apology and retraction.

The article was supposedly written by a certain ‘Mawuko Quarshie’, without any evidence or justification blatantly described me as a criminal and raised several fictitious allegations on my person.

I am shocked and cannot understand the motive or agenda for which your media house agreed to be used as a platform to publish such a defamatory article against me without any form of cross-checking or verification of the issues raised by an unknown writer who cannot be traced.

Your publication stated on authority that I, Lord Commey, is “taking from an NDC big man at the Lotteries GHc250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis) every week under the pretext of keeping him in his position and that this is happening on the blindside of the new CEO”.

This accusation is not true. I have not taken, I am not taking and I shall not take anything either in cash or in kind from anyone at Lotteries or anywhere else under the pretext of protecting that person’s job.

The allegation is only meant to tarnish my reputation and nothing else. Name of the supposed giver is not mentioned so the security agencies can even start an investigation into the allegation. The amount mentioned, GHc250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis) every week, is simply outrageous and does not make sense. The writer or person making the allegation would also not own up to provide some leads to the allegation can be investigated. All the publication does is to throw such lies into the public and leave it hanging. It is illogical to an extent that it is almost impossible to respond to such a senseless allegation without questioning the brains of the writer.

Your publication also alleged that at the Ports, I am “acting as the NPA Boss, overseeing the smuggling of finished fuel products with the help of crude Customs officers like one Oduro, and so on” and again says I am collecting bribes in “tens of thousands of dollars” to enable some people divert fuel products meant for exports.

There is not a single element of truth in this fabricated allegation. I do not know of any ‘Oduro’ in the Customs service and I am not aiding anyone to divert fuel.

The entire accusation is pure fiction and cannot be possible even if I or someone else wanted to engage in such criminality. If the accuser has any such information, why not make that information available to the security agencies or the National Petroleum Authority or even provide that evidence to the media so some investigation can commence.

Rather the writer, someone who cannot be traced or identified, opted to spew out such fabricated lies without any evidence or clue on how the allegations can be proven yet your media house thought it prudent to publish them and tarnish my reputation without any basis. It is unfortunate that the Ghanaian media in this day and age would allow itself to be used in executing such an evil agenda against innocent persons.

Again, your publication says I am inviting, to my office, Police Commanders, Chief Executives of companies, businessmen, high profile employees of Ministries and asking them to bend the laws to favour me.

This is never true. I do not need to ask any anyone to bend the laws of Ghana to favour me because I operate within the laws and I have not done anything unlawful that I would need and law to be compromised.

It is an insult to the professional integrity of the caliber of persons your publication is alleging that I summon to my office and ask them to bend the laws to favour me. Under a thriving democratic system of governance with an open-eyed and active media, laws cannot be bent to favour an individual or a group of persons without being exposed or the evidence being splashed on the newsstands.

In the same publication, the writer alleges that in 2012 I sold some motorcycles meant for the New Patriotic Party and before the 2016 elections, I sold “other items” meant for the party and that currently, I am selling “confiscated vehicles” meant for the state.

This is not true. My difficulty is that these allegations are very senseless and without any bases and therefore responding to them properly becomes a challenge because apart from saying they are not true, there is no other way I can properly shred them into pieces.

The accuser does not raise any bases or evidence for us to interrogate but simply spews out lies and nonsense and leaves them hanging. Yet the media finds it worthy enough to publish and assist the accuser create a spiteful impression in the minds of the public against me simply because “someone” is saying so albeit without evidence.

Journalist or any group or persons should not be used as pawns by mercenaries in destroying the reputation of others. This is highly unacceptable and extremely unfair.

For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to state in plain language that I am a law abiding citizen doing my best for God and country not the criminal your publication painted me to be.

I am not engaged in criminality, touchwood, and I shall continue to comport myself within the laws of this country and as expected of my maker. Once again I demand an unequivocal apology and retraction of the defamatory publication.

Signed

Lord Commey.