Ex-Democrat Editor Apologises To Addo-Kufuor

The former Editor of the National Democratic, Mr. Ebenezer Josiah, has apologised to Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Minister for Defence –designate, Mrs. Gladys Asmah, Minister for Fisheries-designate and Nana Wiafe-Ababio, Chief Executive of Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) and others, for allegedly associating them with the serial killing of women that rocked the country about five years ago.

He also took the “opportunity to once again apologise unreservedly to President J.A. Kufuor, whom I have to admire for not using his power to retaliate as other presidents would easily have done, for my churning out lies to tarnish his image and character.”

Mr. Josiah made the apology in a press release signed and issued in Accra yesterday by him.

“Indeed, now that some of the personalities are facing the Appointments Committee of Parliament for various ministerial appointments, I think it is proper their names are cleared,” he said.

“Not only that, but to suggest that the Defence Minister-designate, who is a medical practitioner by profession, imported syringes to inject women abducted in the serial killing is totally absurd,” it said .

The release said as a former editor of the paper, he wished to state that he personally had no proof of any of the allegations that his paper churned out and that he was misled into doing that by over-zealous politicians who had an axe to grind with some of the members of the ruling government.

“Having resigned from my work as a result of the scandalous publications, I think it is morally right to retract those stories and apologise to all Ghanaians for publishing stories that have no proof,” it said.

The release said he had been compelled to revisit the issue of the serial killing and the murder of the late Ya-Na Yakubu, Andani, the King of Dagbon, in view of the disparaging remarks made against him in the editorial column of the National Democrat issue of Monday, 17 – Wednesday, 19 January, 2005 under the heading “Democrat Vindicated.”

“Honestly, I find this piece very absurd, particularly so when the acting Editor, Mr. Kofi Twumasi, is aware of the fact that as editor of the paper, I never had first hand information in most of the front page stories, let alone have documents to substantiate the allegations,” it said.

The release made it clear that so long as he did not have any supporting documents nor was he privy to any first hand information about the stories, he had every right to disassociate himself from the said publications.

“Indeed, I find it absurd to edit a paper that only specialises in churning out negative stories about people who belong to the other side of the political divide without any proof,” he added.