Africawatch to sue Daily Guide, Statesman over Fake Free SHS report

Popular magazine Africawatch has threatened to drag Daily Guide and Statesman newspapers to court over some fake reports that it[Africawatch] intends to issue out a special publication on Ghana’s free Senior High School programme which was allegedly sponsored by former President Mahama.

AfricaWatch in a statement said the story carried by the aforementioned tabloids are completely false, describing it as “a product of paid media mercenaries whose sole mission is to utterly defame the reputation of a journalistic publication whose views some others do not agree with.”

The statement added: “We therefore want it to be on public record, in the clearest terms possible, that Africawatch has no campaign to wage against President Akufo-Addo’s government. We must also state that we have no ties to former President John Mahama, nor has he commissioned us to do any Special Report on Ghana’s free SHS programme, as has been claimed by sections of the media in Accra.

“We report news as we see it, and no one can peddle or influence our editorial policies nor control what we choose to publish. Our coverage in the past has always been informed by national interest, and national interest only. So any attempt by faceless individuals to tarnish the good name of this magazine will not stand. We have instructed our lawyers to begin legal action against those media houses involved in these grossly slanderous allegations that seem to be politically motivated.”

Africawatch’s response come after the Daily Guide newspaper this week accused former President John Mahama of sponsoring a yet-to-be released anti-Free SHS publication by the magazine.

According to the story, Africawatch has devoted “a 44-page Special Report on what it says is ‘poor education in Ghana’”, and that 73,000 copies of the February issue have already been airlifted to Ghana for what it called a smear campaign against President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government.

The office of the former President has dismissed the allegations, but accused President Akufo-Addo of orchestrating attacks against him.

Also the Presidency responded in similar fashion denying the allegations through the Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, insisting president Akufo-Addo is busily fixing the mess and rot created by the John Mahama government and has no time to orchestrate attacks against him.