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General News of Thursday, 1 December 2011

Source: By Francis Tandoh

Dutchman Drags Editor To Court

…over false publication

A Dutchman, John Wubbling and his Ghanaian wife, Eunice Wubbling are dragging the editor of the Republic newspaper to court over a publication that tend to destroy the hard earned reputation of the family.

The Republic newspaper, in its Thursday November 24 to 28 edition, vol. 62 published a story with the headline “Rogue Expatriate On the Loose …He chased road construction workers out of site with guns and dogs and snubs Nungua Chiefs and MCE.”

According to the story, the Wubbling family had instructed road construction workers who were working in front of their house not to deposit a heap of sand on their flower bed and that incident resulted in a confrontation.

The Dutchman was purported to have fired several warning shots while the wife, whom the paper described as 22 year old came out with a sniffer dog to bite the workers.

The paper also alleged that the couple was disrespectful to the Nungua chiefs and at the same time have absolute control over the police in the area.

However, in an interview with the wife of the Dutchman, Eunice told this reporter that they were returning from town to their house about three months ago and upon getting to their main gate, they realized the workers had dug a gutter deep down that had affected the pipeline to their house.

She said the husband questioned the workers why they had done that. That question from Mr. Wubbling did not go down well with the workers and they started hurling insults upon insults on the expatriate.

The wife who had then left the entrance of the house to go in to open their main gate to park her vehicle heard the husband was being attacked by the workers numbering six with shovels and pick axe.

Terrified by the situation and with nobody in sight to rescue the husband from the hands of the able-bodied construction workers, she rushed to the room and picked her registered gun and fired warning shots into the air in the compound of their house.

Upon hearing the sound of the gun from inside the compound of the couple, the workers left their working tools and fled.

Eunice Wubbling said she quickly picked all the tools of the workers and together with the husband drove and reported the case to the Nungua Divisional Police.

The Nungua Police invited the parties involved in the dispute and upon listening to both sides of the story found that the workers erred.

The couple initially wanted to proceed to the law court but upon a plea from the Municipal Inspector of Roads for the Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly, Alex Tetteh, they forgave the workers.

According to Mrs. Wubbling, they were at a loss as to why the Managing Editor of the Republic newspaper did not contact them to find out their side of the story.

Eunice said she was not happy with the manner with which the paper described her as a 22 year old girl who was reckless and careless and that there was no way they had shown disrespect to any of the chiefs in Nungua.

Mr. Wubbling, who had been living in the country for the past 15 years, said he has been a law-abiding person who together with the wife had established businesses employing over a hundred Ghanaians.

The couple noted that publication had really dented their hard earned reputation and that they were proceeding to the court for their name to be cleared.

Meanwhile, the Managing Editor of the Republic newspaper, David Tamakloe has sent a text message to Eunice Wubbling concerning the publication that was carried. The message reads “Madam, with regard to your age, I will correct some error in my subsequent publication and render you an unqualified apology but still hopes to talk to you and your husband on the other issues.”

Further investigations conducted by this reporter indicate that there is a grand scheme that is being orchestrated by a past employee of the Wubblings.

It is alleged that Alhaji Issah Abass, who managed the African Royal Beach Hotel (Dutch Hotel), is behind the false publication.