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I've not forgiven Konadu - Baako

By Daily Guide
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 | Print | E-Mail | PDF | Graphics Version
General News

Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of the Crusading Guide says he has not forgiven the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for sending him and a colleague journalist, Alhaji Harrunah Attah to jail 10 years ago.

Mr. Baako said he was still hurt and bitter about the issue and explained that the circumstance under which they were jailed was totally unnecessary.

“I would be dishonest if I say I have succeeded in forgiving her, even though the new faith that I am now pursuing has given me a greater sense of discipline and a more open heart; so maybe I am on my way to forgiving her but I would be dishonest if I say I have forgiven her.

“But a new perspective is coming to me and a new spirit is in me so maybe I am on my way to forgiving; if I want to please the world, I would say I have forgiven her, but sometimes we say these things when we do not mean them,” Mr. Baako said on Peace FM Wednesday morning.

Mr. Baako and Alhaji Harrunah Attah, on July 23, 1998, were sentenced to a 30-day jail term by an Accra High Court, following a suit filed against them by Nana Konadu, wife of then sitting President, Jerry John Rawlings.

Mr. Baako was then the Editor of the Guide, now Daily Guide, while Alhaji Harrunah Attah was the Editor of the Statesman.

Mrs. Rawlings had dragged the two editors to court crying foul that their papers had defamed her, and sought an interim injunction to restrain them from publishing any further defamatory material about her.

In the course of the trial, she filed another contempt charge against the Editors and had the court throw them behind bars for 30 days each on the contempt charge, after which she failed to pursue the substantive case.

Mr. Baako said the one month jail term that Mrs. Rawlings made him serve under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government was more painful than the two years and six-month separate jail terms he served under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), also headed by J.J. Rawlings.

“I had done two years; I had done six months; so one month was no problem to me at all but why I was hurt and bitter was because of the circumstances; the whole thing was completely unnecessary and it was bad publicity for the First Lady, for the NDC, for the government and for everybody; it was an unnecessary bad publicity.

“The issue was more of a family feud and I was thrown in; I was a victim of cross-fire and that was unnecessary,” Mr. Baako indicated.


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