Minister threatens legal action against Finder newspaper

The Caretaker Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba, has declared as lies and false fabrication, a media report suggesting that he had deserted his post and gone lobbying for appointments.

Cataloging his itinerary since January 8 when he assumed the role of Caretaker Minister, he said he had been busily performing the roles assigned him and had neither deserted his post, nor was he lobbying for any position.

He therefore served notice to "The Finder" newspaper that allegedly carried the story to retract it and render an unqualified apology to him, giving it the same prominence the paper gave to the initial story within seven days, failure to do which will result in legal action against the newspaper.

Mr. Mabengba made these known in a press statement issued in Tamale on Wednesday and copied to the Ghana News Agency through the Principal State Attorney, Mr. Salia Adbul-Quddus, who has been instructed to act on his behalf.

The statement noted that the Finder paper did not do due diligence before publishing the story, otherwise it would have come to the realisation that pursuant to well publicized directives from the Presidency, the Minister had been at post performing his official duties in Tamale and other parts of the region, which facts were easily verifiable.

It added that in the haste to vilify the Minister, his Deputy who had ended his stewardship since January 6, 2013, was also oped in thus "reducing basic journalism to pedestrian level".

“The fact that your paper published a blatant falsehood, not believing in its truth, without bothering whether it is true or not and making no effort to cross-check its authenticity demonstrates the fact that it does not matter to you the negative picture the story paints about our client in particular and the Northern Region in general”, the statement said.