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General News of Monday, 25 July 2005

Source: Chronicle

Law School Boss Tries To Gag Chronicle?

?Tell him, I?m from Larteh, he?ll see,? -ANSA-ASARE

Mr. Kwaku Ansa-Asare, the director of the Ghana School of Law, with a court bailiff in tow, stormed the Chronicle offices at Accra New Town last Friday and threw at the editor a writ he had filed against the Chronicle over a story about him, carried in its Friday July 22 edition.

Talking down to the editor, after he had refused an offer of a seat, Mr. Ansa-Asare furiously complained about the publication, saying it was very unfair to him.

According to The Chronicle editor, when Mr. Ansa-Asare entered his office, together with the bailiff, he politely offered him a seat, but Ansa-Asare refused to sit down.

Editor Kojo Omaboe, the laid back low-keyed veteran of 33 years, said the law school director then fired at him: ?You are Kojo Omaboe?? and when he answered in the affirmative, Ansa-Asare personally grabbed the writ from the bailiff and handed it to him, along with a protest letter.

The generally respected law school director, who is also the Director of Readwide Ltd, a book publishing company, then enquired about the whereabouts of the reporter who wrote the story.

The editor said Ansa-Asare claimed that the reporter had used his camera mobile phone to snap him a photograph without his consent, and he was going to report him to the police, as that was a criminal act.

?Tell him, I?m from Larteh, he?ll see,? were Ansa-Asare?s parting words, after he had taken down the phone number of the reporter.

In his suit against the Publishers General Portfolio Limited, the Editor, the Reporter and Multimedia Broadcasting Company Limited, owners and operators of Joy FM station, he is seeking: general damages for what he termed ?defamatory words? as shown in The Chronicle publication of Friday, 22nd July, 2005, under the headline, ?Law School Boss in ?10bn scandal? and also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining each and everyone of the defendants from publishing what he termed further defamatory matters concerning him.

Meanwhile Chronicle has alerted all its correspondents nationwide and worldwide and put them on a red alert. The objective is to gather as much material as possible to supplement what formed the basis of the story and prepare for legal battle given what has been suggested to this paper the immense leverage he has in Government as a self proclaimed NPP guru and one whose clout extends to the deeper recesses of various facets of society including Larteh, the location of the famous Akonnedi shrine.

Mr. Ansah?s effort to gag The Chronicle in a democratic state will be the first challenge, which +should come on by next week.