“Some are accusing me of being a PRO for the NPP; the question I often ask is that; …ain’t I entitled to make my position clear on issues of national importance whether between NDC, NPP? I don’t understand…” wondered Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr.
According to him, “the most important thing is to look at the issues being launched and the merits of the issue; that is better than this tagging and labeling which for me comes from weak minds or people who clearly know that they have lost the battle; then what they have to do is tag you, label you, character assassinate you and all the rest, but I have a thick skin so I can absorb those things”
The renowned journalist who can be described as a walking encyclopedia has been criticized for exposing a document which indicates that Societe Generale was a recipient of $19,500,000.00 in payment of GNPC’s indebtedness to the bank (SG) as a result of a hedging transaction the two companies (SG and GNPC) had entered into between October 1996 and July 1998.
This is contrary to the testimony given by Mr. Gilbert Hie, managing Director of SG-Ghana Limited at the Judgment debt commission when he appeared before it.
Mr Hie said at the Commission that SG has no records of the payment of $19.5 million as settlement of its dispute with GNPC in 2001.
He said by the French law, documents were required to be kept for a maximum of 10 years, beyond it the law did not require them to continue keeping the documents, and was therefore not surprised that the documents could not be found.
The New Crusading Guide newspaper Tuesday published the evidence of the payment order from Den norske Bank ASA, London Branch which effected the payment of the $19.5m telegraphically to the New York account of SG on July 16, 2001.
However, according to Kweku Baako’s critics, the documents were fake.
Tuesday’s edition of the Daily Post newspaper headlined: “Sorry, Kweku Baako; you have produced another fake document”, indicated that Kweku Baako’s attempt to ‘defend the NPP’s looting brigade’ as far as the GNPC saga is concerned has been exposed.
The publication further stated that the Judgment debt awarded against GNPC by an English court; also disclosed by Kweku Baako were fake because it was signed by a lawyer of the English court instead of the sitting judge.
But speaking to the issue on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, Kweku Baako insisted that the documents were official and true.
He said: “I won’t say I am perfect. I have made mistakes and I will continue to make mistakes as long as I am a human being but I insist on this core that the judgment (we published) was an official record from the high court of justice Queens’s bench division, commercial court UK and the stamps are even on it…Those who are talking of the mischief have a reason of making it so; quite a lot of it is a red herring and it will dissipate into thin air…”