Adakabre Dragged To Court

In This era of proliferation of radio stations and newspapers where professional ethics are sometimes thrown over-board, many media houses may soon fold up as a result of lawsuits if action by the C.E.O of Newstart-For-Life is followed. Oheneba Ntim Barima, a radio talk show host at Oman FM has dragged Adakabre Frimpong Manso a.k.a. Mamoud, a well-known morning show host at Hot FM here in Accra, and Ohenenana Kwame Amoh, a local language newscaster to court for character assassination, and further seeking damages on the grounds that the story has affected his business. He is demanding and amount of GH�22,000 for exposing him to public ridicule. Explaining the rational behind the legal action to The Heritage newspaper, Oheneba explained that recently in the company of a staff member of Hot FM he was approached by a strange woman who accused him of impregnating her 17-year-old daughter by name Beatrice Ofeibea, an allegation he instantly denied. According to him, he later followed it up to the residence of his accuser, whereupon seeing him, Beatrice denied ever knowing him. The girl later brought a book which she alleged was given to her by the one who made her pregnant. When the name was identified it turned out to be a known political figure and a social commentator. The true story he said was later leaked to the media in which the name of the man who actually impregnated the young lady was mentioned as one Ntim Barima which should have brought the matter to rest. However, the station went ahead and called him on its morning show programme and grilled him as to what he knew about the allegation. �I stood on my feet and denied knowledge of the allegation but the station had already made the general public have some negative impressions about me�. The station went further and used the allegation story in its 12 o�clock bulletin castigating him with the usual blend of proverbs, euphemisms and metaphor. What baffles him is that in the interest of fairness and balanced reportage the station should have called either Ofeibea or the mother into the programme to confirm or deny the story, something the station refused to do. Last Tuesday, in the company of the Police he went to the residence of his accusers and dragged them to the studios of Hot FM where Beatrice�s mother apologized to him. Thereafter, a gentleman�s agreement was reached: That the station retract the story using the same prime news time to apologize to him and the general public, something he claimed the station has refused to comply with. The Newstart-for-life C.E.O says he therefore suspects a calculated attempt by his former employers to tarnish his hard earned reputation. He said since the news was aired he had received thousands of telephone calls from both home and abroad enquiring why he could have impregnated the teenager. �It takes me hours to explain the details of this issue. They have supported me in filing this lawsuit against the company. In fact, it has affected my relationship with people. A representative of Lexcom and Associates, a law firm based in Accra confirmed the legal action and added that Hot FM will be served with the writ of summons. The producer of the morning show has challenged Oheneba to take him court. He said that will be a platform for them to explain matters to the general public. He said on countless occasions Oheneba had come to their office to insult them on petty issues and on each occasion they let him go scot-free. When contacted by phone on the issue, Adakabre said he had not received any summons yet and would thus not make any comment.