AIDS Scandal: Top Politician Sues Girl Friend

A prominent politician in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Administration has sued his "girl friend" and the management of an Accra radio station, for claiming on its network that he has the HIV/AIDS disease and has knowingly infected a lady with it.

In a writ of summons filed at an Accra High Court on February 4, 2004, the plaintiff (name withheld) also joined the lady, a certain Nana Yaa Konadu 27, of Kumasi, to the suit. The plaintiff is claiming an order for an award of costs against the defenders, i.e., PeaceFM (Despite Company Ltd.), and Nana Yaa Konadu (the lady), for publishing defamatory material, through the medium of Peace fm and by herself (1st Defendant), an innuendo, claiming that he, (plaintiff) has had HIV/AIDS, and had knowingly infected the lady with it.

In a writ of summons, attaching Peace fm to the 1st Defendant (the lady), the politician asked for perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from publishing further articles or defamatory materials about himself, through Peace fm, and through the lady and/or by any other means.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff is seeking an order from the court to compel the 1st Defendant (Yaa Konadu) to join the plaintiff and other interested persons to undergo a medical examination to establish whether, indeed, he is HIV(1&2) positive as claimed by the 1st Defendant.

In a story in Daily Guide of Tuesday, February 6, the paper published the transcript of an interview which the radio station had with a 27-year-old woman who accused a leading politician of infecting her with the HIV/AIDS virus, and abdicating responsibility for her upkeep. The woman, who is a graduate from one of the training colleges in the country, stated that she was compelled to come out, because she had realised that the man was going after young girls in tertiary educational institutions, by using money to bait them.

The woman?s narrative, which was captured in a 17-minute recording on audio tape, was previewed on peace fm?s Kokrokoo Morning Show? programme, hosted by Kwame Sefa Kayi on Thursday, February 4, 2004, and aspects of it re-broadcast on the station?s ?Lunch Time on Peace?, hosted by Kofi Kum Bilson, from 12 noon to 2pm that day.

A test at the Police Hospital, Nyaho Clinic and Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), Legon, respectively, according to her, proved that she was HIV/AIDS positive.