Odike Retracts Galamsey Statement Against Prez Secretary

The founder of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Akwasi Addai Odike has retracted his statement against Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Secretary to president Akufo-Addo, after the latter threatened to sue him.

In an interview, Odike said he made the statement with reference to a media report.

“I was watching a report filed by TV3 on a forest reserve at Bosomefreho. The residents were in a scuffle with some military men and one of the residents said that the Asante Bediatuo was the one who sent the military (to engage in illegal mining in the forest). I heard that from that report”, he recalled his statement.

He added, “I didn’t say Asare Bediatuo was into galamsey. I only referenced what the residents were alleging”.

He furthered that “I retract if it was received wrongly. I don’t have any problem in retracting it because it’s only hearsay”.

Background
Secretary to President Akufo-Addo, Nana Asante Bediatuo through his lawyers, threatened to sue Akwasi Addai Odike for alleging that the former “has brought people to Bosomefreho to engage in galamsey”.

In a letter to the 2020 presidential candidate of UPP, the lawyers demanded that he retract the statement and apologise.

“We are instructed to inform you that the said publication that you put out in the public domain is absolutely false. It is instructive to point it out to you that you ought to have taken steps to verify the authenticity of the information before publishing the same in the public domain”.

Asante Bediatuo finds Odike’s failure to verify the news as “deliberate and carefully calculated to malign, cause public dissatisfaction, injure and reduce” his reputation in public eyes.

The lawyers, therefore, gave Odike a week ultimatum to retract the “defamatory and malicious” statement or else get set for legal action.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini