Prez Mahama's brother warns Chairman 'Wontumi'

 

Ibrahim Mahama, a younger brother of President John Mahama, has asked Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly called Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to quickly retract a statement he made about him (Ibrahim) and the President and apologize to them.

This was contained in a letter sent to Wontumi by Mr. Mahama's lawyer, Charles William Zwennes of Gaisie Zwennes Hughes and Co.

Chairman Wontumi, speaking on a political platform, promised a one million-man demonstration at a rally in Obuasi and accused President Mahama and his brother of mismanaging tax payers money.

Ibrahim wants the retraction should be published in Daily Graphic and Kumasi-based Ash FM, which published and broadcasted Wontumi's wild allegation about him and the President at an NPP function at Obuasi.

He said he would be compelled to take appropriate steps to protect and defend his hard-won image which Wontumi's recent public comments had dented, if the NPP chairman failed to abide by his order.

Below is the full statement

GAISIE ZWENNES HUGHES & CO. LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND NOTARIES PUBLIC PARTNERS:E. Brite Gaisie LL.B. (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana C.B. Kwesi Zwennes LL.B (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana E.B. Sekyi Hughes BA (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana

Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako,

The Regional Chairman,

National Patriotic Party (NPP), Opposite Ashfood Court Hotel, Bantama, Kumasi, Ashanti Region.

11th April 2014.

Dear Sir,

RE: DEMAND FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE RETRACTION AND APOLOGY TO MR. IBRAHIM MAHAMA FOR STATEMENTS MADE.

We act as solicitors for Mr. Ibrahim Mahama. We are instructed by our client to demand from you an immediate and unqualified retraction and apology for statements that you made on a public platform concerning him.

Our client complains that on the occasion of the "Peoples' Forum" which was held on 30th March 2014 before a large public gathering in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, you mounted a platform organized for the event and made statements concerning him which are wholly untrue, recklessly slanderous and altogether defamatory of his good name and reputation.

The particular terms of the defamatory statements you made, are that our client is somehow engaged in a dishonest enterprise, in collusion with his brother, His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, to steal state funds from tariff and price increases in fuel.

Sir, the offending words hereinafter reproduced are ascribed to you as having been made on the occasion in question:

"President Mahama and his brother Ibrahim have loaded all the money into their pockets. Each and every day they increase petrol prices then you and I, the downtrodden, suffer to pay for the increase - they keep the monies in their pockets, and use it to buy planes - aeroplanes - in which they fly. Each week, President Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim, travel to South Africa. You my brother, the monies President Mahama has given to his brother, have you got any? Does Someone pay for your children's school fees?"

These statements of yours are maliciously false and were calculated when made to damage our client by causing his good name and reputation to be held in contempt and opprobrium by right thinking members of society.

We therefore demand that you publish a clear and unqualified apology and retraction of the statements, which are deliberately libellous. We request that by Wednesday, 16th April 2012, the retraction and apology is published prominently in the Daily Graphic and broadcast on Ash FM, who propagated the libel by also broadcasting the occasion on air.

Please note that our client reserves his right to take any and every appropriate step to protect and defend his good reputation from your irresponsible and inaccurate statements.

Source: myjoyonline