Akosua Frema Osei-Opare
The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare appears unhappy as she has given Prime Mark Company Limited, publishers of the Herald newspaper a 24-hour ultimatum to retract and apologise a defamatory publication against her, else she sues.
This follows a publication carried in the August 3, 2022 edition of the Newspaper captioned, “More rot emerge from BOST with Chief of Staff named again.”
The Chief of Staff in a letter to the media house through her lawyer, Gary Nimako described the publication as defamatory and has criminal connotations.
According to her, the publication was aimed at tarnishing her hard-won reputation.
“We are instructed to demand an immediate retraction and apology for the malicious and defamatory publication within twenty-four (24) hours upon receipt of this letter.
“Please be informed that we have our client’s firm instructions to commence legal proceedings against you to vindicate her grievances without further recourse to you should you fail to accede to our request within the period stated supra,” the letter dated Wednesday, August 10, 2022 read.
She has therefore, threatened legal action against the Herald Newspaper if it fails to retract and apologise in the next 24 hours upon receipt of the letter.
The publication alleged that an auction of some cars at BOST were halted by the Chief Staff with the cars allotted to politicians and sympathisers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at knockdown prices.
According to the letter, the lawyers explained that the said public auction that The Herald claimed never took place actually happened and was conducted by Manellis Mart Auctions with payments made to BOST.
“We wish to further state that the Notice of the Auction was published in the Daily Graphic, Friday, April 29, 2022 as follows “Auction Sale of Unserviceable Vehicles at BOST on 06/05/2022 at 10AM. It is needless to point out that the auction of the said unserviceable vehicles was a public auction sanctioned by the Public Procurement Authority.
“Regrettably, you did not see the need to verify the source of your information from official sources because of your desperate attempt to malign and tarnish the hard won reputation of our client,” the letter stated.
It indicated that the said beneficiaries of the auctioned cars had nothing to do with political party affiliation.
“It is unfortunate that you sought to drag the name of the Chief of Staff into decisions that are either purely managerial or that of the Board of Directors of BOST,“ according to the letter.
By Vincent Kubi