GHC2.5m Mansion Story Is Inaccurate � Statesman Admits

The Editor of the New Statesman Newspaper, says its report on Wednesday May 25, that Information the Minister John Tia Akologo, is putting up a 20-bedroom mansion on a waterway at the cost of GHC2.5 million (25 billion old cedis), is inaccurate. This comes after the Minister�s outright denial of the story and a threat to file a complaint at the National Media Commission (NMC). The publication, which came along with pictures of the said building project, stated that the Minister's wife has was spotted at the project site at the Golf City Estates in Tema. According to the paper, the plush property on a waterway was a bother to residents of the Estates, who feared their homes could be drowned in floods. It further reported that the neighbors have blamed the unusual flooding of the area in recent times on the fact that Mr. Tia's building has swept away part of a bridge, blocking the free flow of floodwater. But the Editor of the Newspaper, Mr. Kwabena Amankwah, has told Citi News there was a mistaken identity with the publication, adding that the building is not owned by the Information Minister. According to him, the building is rather owned by a Deputy Minister, who bears a similar name with the Information Minister. At this point, Mr. Amankwah struggled to identify the true owner. �We understand the Minister also bears the name Tia. It is Tia who is a Deputy Minister for Agriculture �he said after he had been pushed further. �We want to say that there was a mix-up in terms of identity in the story. The name of the owner of that building is rather a Deputy Minister who also bears the name Tia. However it is not the Information Minister. So we want to use this opportunity to render a sincere apology to the Information Minister for that publication and give him that assurance that as we are ethically bound to do, in our next Friday Edition, we will retry and apologize accordingly� he said. Asked why the Newspaper failed to cross-check its information, Mr. Amankwah replied �It�s rather the identity of the owner which we got wrong. But the fact of the story still stands that there is that building standing in a waterway and it belongs to a Deputy Minister and not the Information Minister. Mistakes are bound to happen in any human endeavour and this is not the first time a journalist has committed this mistake. That is why we are saying that it was a mistake and once it has been brought to our notice, we want to apologize to the Minister and assure him that we will retract the story�. Mr. Amankwah could however not say whether the retraction will be given the prominence that it deserves. Meanwhile, the Information Minister who has described the publication �as the worst form of journalism ever to have happened in the country�, has told Citi News he may go ahead to sue the Paper if they fail to give the retraction of the story is not given due prominence. �This is one of the one of the worst unprofessional journalistic practice that I have seen in this country. If you look at the story apart of the exaggeration they never did any attempt to contact to verify this story. So what is their aim? For me, this is wildest publication that this newspaper has put out�. Hon. John Tia urged Ghanaians to stop patronizing the New Statesman newspaper since, according to him; their only aim is to publish falsehood. The Statesman Newspaper was recently criticized by elements in Government over some publications.