Togolese authorities to sue "Ghanaian Democrat"

Accra March 13, GNA - The Togolese Authorities are to initiate legal action against the Ghanaian Democrat newspaper for reporting that President Gnassingbe Eyadema has made disparaging comments about Ghana and President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Friday, the Togolese ambassador to Ghana, Mr Jean-Pierre T. Gbikpi-Benissan denied that the Togolese President ever made comments that he was ruling Ghana among others issues.

Mr Gbikpi-Benissan said the report by the private newspaper was a means of denting the burgeoning relationship between Ghana and Togo that has seen better days in recent times.

He said the Togolese authorities condemn the practice of yellow journalism, which seems to be the hallmark of the Ghanaian Democrat newspaper.

Mr Gbikpi-Bessan said he was optimistic that the report would not lead to any disturbance of the good relationship between Togo and Ghana, which has been built within the spirit of ECOWAS.

Mr Ebow Godwin, a Togolese-based Ghanaian journalist, who was among the journalists who interviewed President Eyadema on February 22, 2004, denied the allegations carried by the newspaper.

He said President Eyadema among other things commended the cordial relationship between his country and Ghana and promised to keep the border with Ghana open for 24 hours.

Mr Ebow said: "We made no secret about this and the stories, which were published subsequently, bear eloquent testimony to the transparency of the encounter".

He said it is, therefore, intellectually dishonesty to impute bad, and non-existent motives into such a laudable cross-border media encounter.

Mr Ebow said it was strange that such an effort to boost regional integration could be misconstrued and turned into something that cold destroy the people of the two countries.

He noted that there are a large number of peoples of the two countries in the both countries and, this does not augur well for anybody.

Mr Ebow said: "We have seen this before in Cote dIvoire and we all know what happened. We do not want to see this happen again". He said relations between Ghana and Togo went frosty and cold in the past, but former President Jerry John Rawlings began a process of rapprochement with President Eyadema in 1995.

This effort, he said President Kufuor is sustaining and no one should be allowed to draw the two countries back.

Mr Ebow appealed to the National Media Commission and the Ghana Journalists Association to call the Ghanaian Democrat to order. He noted that all efforts to reach the Ghanaian Democrat by telephone or the location of its offices proved futile.