"Joyce Aryee retired me unjustifiably" - former Editor

Accra, March 17, GNA- Mr Yakubu Dadinkai, former Deputy Editor of the Weekly Spectator, an Accra weekly, on Wednesday said Ms Joyce Aryee, former Secretary for Information, retired him unjustifiably from his position in 1983.

Mr Dadinkai, testifying at a National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) public hearing in Accra, said his premature retirement was because of an editorial he wrote, questioning the basis of rumours of Madam Fathia Nkrumah, wife of Ghana's first President, was leaving Ghana for good.

He said the Daily Graphic Newspaper had published the story, which said Fathia had been going round telling lies about one Aryee. Witness described himself as a revolutionary, and said he offered advice on the directions of the revolution of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

He said he found it as an embarrassment why the PNDC, which he said, had said it came to represent Nkrumah's government wanted to do away with his (Nkrumah's) wife.

"I wrote against it, and questioned why she had to leave," he said.

Mr. Dadinkai, who said he is now a traditional chief, with skin name, the Yimahi-Na of Bimbila, said he was retired on October 18, 1983, three days after the editorial was published on Saturday October 15, 1983.

He said on the Friday that the said issue of the Spectator was being printed, his office was invaded by members of the then Workers Defence Committee (WDC) from the Ministry of Information asking for a copy of the editorial which was to be published the next day.

Witness said he later learnt that Ms. Aryee had come to the offices of the New Times Corporation (NTC), and ordered the stoppage of further circulation of that issue of the Spectator, which had then already gone to the embassies and Kumasi.

He said when he reported for work on Monday, Ms. Aryee had summoned him to come to her office together with Mr. Mends, then Managing Director, accredited to the Corporation from the Ministry of Information.

Mr. Dadinkai said at the meeting, which was attended by the hierarchy of media organisations in Ghana, Ms. Aryee confronted him on what right he had to use Government paper to write a story about Fathia, and he said he replied that as an editor he had the right to write whatever he pleased.

He said Ms. Aryee called him a sycophant in spite of all that he had been writing and that Egypt had been criticising Fathia that she married a Black Man, and that Ghana had done her best to educate Fathia's children.

Mr Dadinkai said he apologised to Ms. Aryee on the prompting of Mr. Mends but Ms. Aryee asked him to "continue to report himself to her office."

He said he later heard of his retirement on radio, which was later communicated to him in writing. He said he was paid his benefits but questioned the grounds for his premature retirement.

Counsel for Ms. Aryee, Mr Edem Sekyi and Miss Sheila Menka-Premo had read from a document they said was a copy of Mr. Dadinkai's retirement letter that he was retired on account of poor relations with his workers, drunkenness and incompetence.

This, witness rejected and described them as fake.

Referring to the same document, the Chairman of the Commission Mr. Justice Kweku Etru Amua-Sakyi said the document cited the editorial as one of the reasons for his retirement, saying it had displeased the powers that be and they got him away.

The Chairman further said the evidence of Mr. Dadinkai had been adjourned twice to allow Ms. Aryee, who was not present at Wednesday's hearing, enough time to respond.

Witness further questioned his retirement saying that Mr. Kojo Yankah then editor of the Daily Graphic Newspaper was not retired, but rather promoted when he was involved in a similar situation.

According to him, Flt. Lt. Rawlings, then Chairman of the PNDC had shown a footage of the last confession and execution of Mr. Joachim Amartey Kwei, former member of the PNDC, executed for his role in the abduction and murder of the three High Court Judges and a retired Army Major in 1982 to a group of senior Journalists.

He said Mr. Yankah was among the editors who watched the film and despite a caution from Ms. Joyce Aryee to the editors "to let what they had seen remain within the four walls of her office" Mr Yankah went ahead and published the story.

Mr. Dadinkai said Mr. Yankah was briefly suspended from his position as Editor of the Daily Graphic and added that Mr. Kabral Blay Amihere, then Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) was removed and replaced with Mr. Yankah. Witness considered that as an elevation.

Mr. Dadinkai said Ms. Aryee failed to respond to reconciliatory moves he made. He said he contacted her on telephone and they agreed to meet at Radio Gold where Ms. Aryee held a radio programme but she failed to turn up on several occasions.

The Witness indicated that he bore Ms. Aryee no grudge. " I forgave her the day she left the NDC'' he said.