Prez Mahama's Brother To Sue Chairman Wontumi

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, may soon be hurled before court if he refuses to retract an allegation he allegedly made against brother of the President, Ibrahim Mahama, CEO of Engineers and Planners. Confirming a letter they have received from Engineers and Planners signed by Ibrahim Mahama, the Ashanti Regional Secretary, Mr.Samuel Pyne told HELLO FM's King Edward in an interview that they indeed received the letter yesterday which was addressed to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party. The letter, from the solicitors of Engineers and Planners, is demanding an apology and also asking the chairman to retract a statement he made on Ash FM, a local radio Station by the 16th of April 2014 or face legal action by Engineers and Planners, Mr.Samuel Pyne noted. When contacted on Phone, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Mr.Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, declined to comment on the matter as he has not seen a copy of the letter but quickly added that he will be meeting with his lawyers over the matter as soon as he gets a copy of the letter and will appropriately react to it. Below is the full statement GAISIE ZWENNES HUGHES & CO. LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND NOTARIES PUBLIC PARTNERS:E. Brite Gaisie LL.B. (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana C.B. Kwesi Zwennes LL.B (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana E.B. Sekyi Hughes BA (Hons) Senior Advocate of Ghana Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, The Regional Chairman, National Patriotic Party (NPP), Opposite Ashfood Court Hotel, Bantama, Kumasi, Ashanti Region. 11th April 2014. Dear Sir, RE: DEMAND FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE RETRACTION AND APOLOGY TO MR. IBRAHIM MAHAMA FOR STATEMENTS MADE. We act as solicitors for Mr. Ibrahim Mahama. We are instructed by our client to demand from you an immediate and unqualified retraction and apology for statements that you made on a public platform concerning him. Our client complains that on the occasion of the "Peoples' Forum" which was held on 30th March 2014 before a large public gathering in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, you mounted a platform organized for the event and made statements concerning him which are wholly untrue, recklessly slanderous and altogether defamatory of his good name and reputation. The particular terms of the defamatory statements you made, are that our client is somehow engaged in a dishonest enterprise, in collusion with his brother, His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, to steal state funds from tariff and price increases in fuel. Sir, the offending words hereinafter reproduced are ascribed to you as having been made on the occasion in question: "President Mahama and his brother Ibrahim have loaded all the money into their pockets. Each and every day they increase petrol prices then you and I, the downtrodden, suffer to pay for the increase - they keep the monies in their pockets, and use it to buy planes - aeroplanes - in which they fly. Each week, President Mahama and his brother, Ibrahim, travel to South Africa. You my brother, the monies President Mahama has given to his brother, have you got any? Does Someone pay for your children's school fees?" These statements of yours are maliciously false and were calculated when made to damage our client by causing his good name and reputation to be held in contempt and opprobrium by right thinking members of society. We therefore demand that you publish a clear and unqualified apology and retraction of the statements, which are deliberately libellous. We request that by Wednesday, 16th April 2012, the retraction and apology is published prominently in the Daily Graphic and broadcast on Ash FM, who propagated the libel by also broadcasting the occasion on air. Please note that our client reserves his right to take any and every appropriate step to protect and defend his good reputation from your irresponsible and inaccurate statements.