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Accra, Ghana – Retired state prosecutor Ellen C. Kwawukume has threatened to sue Assin Central lawmaker Kennedy Agyapong if he fails to retract and apologise for claiming that she demanded and collected a $5000 bribe from investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas to mess up a case before court.
In a statement, Ms Kwawukumw said: “You further went on to say that in view of the $5,000 bribe you alleged I received, I failed to attend court sittings and generally failed to pursue the suit, resulting in the case being dismissed on the 13th of October 2013”.
She accused Mr Agyapong, who recently premiered a video which was – according to his judgement, evidence of bribe-taking involving Anas and the prosecutor – of “captioning and superimposing a voice narrative on the video that seeks to create the impression I was demanding a bribe and conspiring to tamper with the court process. In the said video I saw portions of a pre-trial meeting I had with Anas Aremeyaw Anas sometime in the year 2009 pertaining.”
“My observation is that you deliberately took bits and pieces of the recording out of context to create a very erroneous impression aimed at furthering your campaign against Anas, bolstered by the wrong impression that I was dead and cannot put up a defence.
“I demand a public retraction of your allegations and an apology within 7 days from the date of this demand. You are entreated to put in as much effort to clear my name as you did in tarnishing my reputation”, she said.
Read the full statement below:
Re: Alleged Acts of Corruption Leveled Against The Person of Ellen C. Kwakukume by Kennedy Agyapong and Salis Newspaper Limited.
Jun 28, 2018
Demand for Retraction and Apology
My attention has been drawn to the following acts and comments made by you Mr. Kennedy Agyapong and The Salis Newspaper:
• Upload and circulation of videos on social media and public airing of said videos at KenCity, Madina on the 28th of June 2018 containing me and Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
• As a prelude to the airing of the above-mentioned video and in some further video interviews you granted various media outlets before the airing, you Kennedy Agyapong said that the video shows a public prosecutor, who is deceased, demanding and collecting a bribe from Anas Aremeyaw Anas. You further went on to say that in view of the $5,000 bribe, you alleged I received, I failed to attend court sittings and generally failed to pursue the suit, resulting in the case being dismissed on the 13th of October 2013.
• Captioning and super imposing a voice narrative on the video that seeks to create the impression I was demanding a bribe and conspiring to tamper with the court process. In the said video I saw portions of a pretrial meeting I had with Anas Aremeyaw Anas sometime in the year 2009 pertaining to the case:
The Republic
vs.
1. Mohammed Hafix Abdullah
2. Mubarak Seidu
3. Prince Kinston Kwame (at large).
I want to provide you with a bit of background information on this case, since your investigations were too shoddy to even ascertain if I was alive or not. The said case was assigned to me on or about the 2nd of October 2009 in the course of my work as a prosecuting attorney in the service of the Attorney Generals Department. After a perusal of the docket I asked for further investigations and thereafter took the case to court on or about the 11th day of May 2010. The case was presided over by Justice Quist. Three dates were given for day-to-day hearings, the 12th, 13th and 14th of May 2010. The complainant failed to turn up in court on all days. It was alleged that the accused persons had threatened him with juju if he shows up in court. Whatever his reason for not showing up, it fueled agitations by the accused persons to be discharged since the complainant had failed to turn up for the start of the case.
To save the case, I decided to call Anas Aremeyaw Anas to give his evidence since it was his investigation which led to the arrest in the first place and this information could help our case. When it got to the tendering of the video he made in the course of his investigation, the counsel for the accused persons raised objections. Arguments were taken by the court on the 23rd of June 2010, 12th of July 2010, 29th of July 2010, 26th of August 2010 and the court set the 10th of September 2010 for a ruling to be given. The court failed to give its ruling on the 10th of September and the case was adjourned to the 27th of September 2010. The case was subsequently adjourned to these days by the presiding judge, without tangible reasons: 8/10/2010, 18/10/2010, 28/10/2010, 30/11/2010,18/1/2011, 1/2/2011, 14/2/2011, 21/2/2011, 7/4/2011,4/5/2011,18/5/2011, 31/5/2011, 28/6/2011 and 14/7/2011. All without the judge giving his ruling. In all, the prosecution attended court over 20 times on this case. I had finished my case and was waiting for a ruling from Justice Quist. Maybe the delays were the initial basis for Anas to investigate the judicial system later on.
In the interim, I attained the age of 60. I applied to proceed on retirement and handed over the case to another attorney around end of July 2011 as directed. The 14th of July 2011 was the last date I attended court on this case. I retired at end of July 2011, over 2 clear years before your alleged date of the dismissal of the case on 11th of October 2013.
My reply to your allegations of corruption are these: Does this factual narrative of what transpired show I did not want to prosecute the case? Your video to back your claims against me has been edited from a recording of a pretrial meeting that spanned several hours. Furthermore the narrative and opinions added seek to paint a picture of wrongdoing. In one such narrative, you captioned a scene: “Tell me the amount transferred to me”. However, anyone listening with a clear mind will hear what I actually said. Which was: “Tell me the amount transferred to him”. I urge all to take a careful re-listen and download copies of the original video. Despite your criminal attempts to doctor the narrative, you botched that part. I thank my God.
I have never had a dollar account. I challenge you to provide proof of that account and even entreat any bank that has my dollar account to provide you with that information.
The allegation that I failed to attend court sittings leading to the dismissal of the case against the accused persons is very false. I retired over two clear years before the said 11th October 2013 that you alleged the case was dismissed because of my failure to attend court to prosecute the case.
My observation is that you deliberately took bits and pieces of the recording out of context to create a very erroneous impression aimed at furthering your campaign against Anas, bolstered by the wrong impression that I was dead and cannot put up a defence.
I demand a public retraction of your allegations and an apology within 7 days from the date of this demand. You are entreated to put in as much effort to clear my name as you did in tarnishing my reputation.
Ellen C. Kwawukume
_________
1st July 2018
Source: ClassFMonline.com
