Osei Assibey Antwi and Thomas Kusi Boafo
THE CEO of Public Sector Reforms, Thomas Kusi Boafo, has been given 14 days to ‘apologise’ and ‘retract’ an alleged statement about acting Kumasi Mayor, Osei Assibey Antwi, or be dragged to court.
The Kumasi Mayor has complained that the alleged defamatory remarks, made about him on radio by Mr. Boafo, has the potential to tarnish his reputation so he has authorised his lawyers, Koffie & Partners, to ask the official to retract the statement within 14 days.
The lawyers in a letter dated May 29, 2021, said Mr. Boafo allegedly made those derogatory remarks about their client on Oman FM on May 27, 2021, and they want immediate apology and retraction in order to prevent any legal action.
Part of the letter read, “Our client’s attention has been drawn to your appearance on a radio programme on Oman FM in Accra, on Thursday, May 27, 2021, and your comments made there in relative to our client, Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi. Our instructions hold that on the aforesaid programme you made a plethora of statements and comments which are not only unfortunate but defamatory of our client and casts a slur on his hard-earned reputation.”
The letter said that, “On the said programme, you were heard to be saying of and concerning our client thus: ‘Osei Assibey says he has given money to Kennedy Agyapong to be given to me as bribe’.”
The lawyers then replied that “our client has never made any such statement anywhere to anyone.”
The letter also quoted Mr. Boafo as saying that “Osei Assibey has rented all radio stations, including Ashh FM and placed people on them to verbally abuse me,” a remark which the lawyers said they consider “undeserving of response and leaves that to the discerning public to assess.”
The lawyers said their client is innocent of all the derogatory comments made about him by Mr. Boafo and would only refuse to go to the law court to seek redress if the official apologised publicly and retracted the ‘false comments’ made.
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi