The Kumasi High Court has ordered former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah to pay Chairman Wontumi a whopping GHC150,000.
The former Minister who served under former President John Mahama was in court demanding $10million in damages for defamation against Bernard Antwi Bosiako, also known as Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Spio-Garbrah sued Chairman Wontumi and added his media outlet, Wontumi Multimedia Company as second defendant for allegedly calling him (Dr Spio-Garbrah) a thief on his Wontumi TV and radio station.
The defendant had stated in his response to the suit that his pronouncement was not actuated by malice and that he was only interpreting the statement made by former Lands Minister, Inusah Fuseini.
Mr Bosiako was quoted in the suit as saying, “All that Inusah Fuseini is saying is that even him, Inusah Fuseini is a thief. If you mention Spio-Garbrah’s name, he is a thief, Sylvester Mensah is a thief, Johsua Alabi is a thief, all their Presidential candidates are thieves, so if John Mahama is a thief, then let us allow him to continue stealing.”
But Chairman Wontumi has reacted to the claims and schooled the NDC man on the matter stating that the issue has a precedent.
He first pointed out to Wontumionline that it was wrong for Dr. Spio-Garbrah to sue him in a foreign currency when he has to give respect to the Ghana Cedi.
“Why is he suing me in dollars and not cedis. This is very wrong to sue someone in Ghana in another currency”, Chairman Wontumi quizzed.
Secondly, he recounted from history that before former President Kufuor exited office, the current General Secretary for the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia labelled all seventeen (17) aspirants of the NPP that wanted to succeed the former President “thieves”.
He continued that NDC members including Dr. Spio-Garbrah hailed Asiedu Nketia for denigrating 17 Presidential aspirants and wondered why he feels hurt to be called same.
“When Kufour was President and needed a successor, Asiedu Nketia came out to call the 17 aspirants thieves and which one of them sued him? He should get a life. Why didn’t Spio call Asiedu Nketia then to inform him not to do that?” Chairman Wontumi asked.
He advised that Spio-Garbrah shouldn’t take him on when he only translated what a panelist read on TV from English to Twi.
“English is not our mother tongue, I only tried to translate what the panel member read. The translation was done from English to Twi and Spio must understand that as Africans, English is not our first language”, he said.
