Ada MP Reacts

I write on the instructions of Hon. Comfort Doyoe Ghansah, the Member of Parliament for Ada East and the Minister of State in Charge of Allied and Social Institutions at the Office of the President, Flagstaff House, Accra. My client has drawn my attention to series of publications in your newspaper especially on the 9th day of September 2014 to the 12th day of September 2014 under the caption�.For CAUSING DIVISION IN PARTY and ADA EAST MP, |Constituents Cross Swords over �dud Cheques respectively. In the said articles, which strangely did not bear the name of the reporter, you caused to be published and circulated vicious, malicious and libelous falsehood of my client. In the said article you sought to portray that my client caused division among the constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress and her conduct seek to destroy the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and thus diminishing the NDC�s ability to win elections in the 2016 general elections. Further you sought to portray that Hon. Member of Parliament has teamed up with the District Chief Executive to hijack the party in the Ada East Constituency and thus �According to the party executives her attitude is similar to that of the District Chief Executive DCE) John Nurudeen Ahortu which was awful and aimed at hijacking and destroying the party instead of uniting the members for the battle ahead in 2016. In subsequent publications you further sought to portray my client as a dishonest person for issuing dud cheques to some women in her constituency. Additionally you asserted that my client deceived some women in the constituency and collected GH₵10. 00 each from them with the promise that she would ensure that loans would be advanced to them for their various businesses and vocations but failed to honor same. Contrary to the said publications, it is on record that as an executive member and prior to her election as the MP for the Ada East Constituency my client has supported all past and current executives for successful conduct of Presidential and parliamentary elections within the constituency. My client has always worked and continues to work to foster unity peace among the constituency executives in particular and the constituents in general and thus could be credited together with the various executives for the peace and success the NDC has chalked in the constituency in successive general elections since 1992. She is therefore unaware of any such discord or disunity among the executives. Indeed the Hon. Member of Parliament has always operated an open door policy and has welcomed all ideas and suggestions including those that are contrary to her personal views and can therefore not be said to be dictating to the executives and calling meetings without their knowledge. My client would therefore want to invite any executive or party member or any member of the constituency to bring any issues they may have against her and she would ensure that same is resolved for the constituency to continue to enjoy peace required for its development. Further my client wants to place on record that she has never issued a dud cheque to any member of the constituency. Sometime in 2009 and long before she was elected as an MP my client sought to assist the women in the Ada East Constituency to access loans for their business and vocations. My client therefore brought the women together and managed to source funds for this purpose. It was during the disbursement of the first loan, that she was introduced to the wrong women�s leader in one of the communities and when the same women drew her attention to this fact and insisted that they did not want to be led by the woman involved, my client politely requested the said woman to return the cheque so that same could be reissued to ensure smooth disbursement of the loans. The lady concerned refused to return the said cheque and my client had no option as any prudent person would do in the circumstance than to call the manager of the drawee bank not to honor the cheque. The cheque was reissued to the appropriate leader and the women in the community were happy with my client�s decision. All entreaties to the said woman to return the cheque has been unsuccessful and my client is amazed how the woman concerned would keep this cheque for over five years and continue to use same to blackmail my client when the facts are well known. The cheque was reissued to the real leader. My client is happy to place on record that the said loans have been paid, a second one has been disbursed and fully paid by the women groups and a third facility is being processed and can report that the women involved are satisfied with the scheme. My client denies taking money from any woman in the constituency as the registration fee. Again my client is unaware of any corrupt practices on the part of the District Chief Executive. It is on record that the Hon, DCE was appointed in February 2014 and all procedures and processes leading to the award of various contracts in the constituency and the District in general commenced prior to his appointment. My client is aware that upon assuming office he continued the said processes and the contracts were awarded. It is therefore untrue and intriguing how anyone could allege that the Hon. DEC awarded contracts without recourse to due process. All contracts were duly awarded in accordance with the procurement laws of Ghana and the standing orders of the Ada East District Assembly. Even though my client sought to explain her side of the story and indeed bare the facts, your reporter sought to publish falsehood about my client. On no occasion has my client sowed seeds of discord among the executives in the constituency and she has never issued a dud cheque. She has also not condoned and connived with corrupt practices. It therefore beats the imagination of my client the source of your information leading to the publications complained of. My client also finds the cover photograph portraying her and the Hon. DCE as being on jolly ride when indeed they were on official duties on issues subsequent to the unfortunate accident involving a musician and her companion on the Volta lake, more especially when my client is a married woman, this act is most unfortunate and unfair unless otherwise you have a different motive of publishing the story rather than inform your esteemed readers about the truth. It is evident from the publications referred to that they were made recklessly and maliciously without regard to the truth and with vicious intent to destroy the image of my client and to bring her name into disrepute, hatred and ridicule. Signed �� Fred Asare Danquah