The Volta Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Makafui Woanyah has filed a writ against Vision3 Communications, operators of Keta based Jubilee radio along with Seth Agbokede the Volta regional vice chairman for the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen’s Council (GNCFC) for allegedly using the station’s airwaves to publish false allegations aimed at ‘tarnishing his hard-won reputation’.
Mr. Woanya filed the summons at the Sogakope High Court on Tuesday, November 24th, a day after Jubilee radio aired an investigative piece, during the station’s morning show that revealed how fishermen in the municipality were allegedly shortchanged and defrauded by the Municipal Chief Executive for Keta Mr. Godwin Edudzi Effah and his collaborators who took various sums of monies from the fishermen with the promise to supply them with government-subsidized outboard motors but failed to do so thereby incurring the wrath of the fishermen.
The 2nd defendant in the writ Mr. Seth Agbokede who made the assertions against the MCE and Mr. Woanya on Jubilee radio’s morning show on Monday, November 23, said the fishermen paid various sums of monies to the MCE for the supply of 30 outboard motors but 19 out of the 30 could not be traced and all attempts made by him and his colleagues to get the motors released failed.
Mr. Agbokede alleged on the show that they, ” fishermen” were reliably informed by their sources that 7 of their outboard motors for which they have fully paid was in the custody of Mr. Makafui Woanyah prompting them to call Jubilee radio to the rescue, an action he says infuriated the MCE and Mr. Woanyah to call for his arrest and interrogated by the Keta police.
Jubilee radio’s morning show(Aguadze) host Savior Selasie Amenyedzi who spoke to jubileeradio.net said the station was only carrying out its core mandate of informing and educating the general public on the state of affairs within the municipality and indeed the matter in question which had political undertones to it. He says Jubilee radio which is the first privately owned FM station in the Volta region has over the years of operating been known for adhering to strict journalistic /broadcasting ethics and will continue to do so without fear or favor in line with media laws and codes in the constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
The morning show host stated the station had to go ahead with the broadcast as the MCE would not speak to its reporters when the investigative piece was been put together and all attempts to get him to respond to the allegations on phone before the broadcast yielded no positive results adding that the station did not err in airing the piece as it was done in the public interest.
He says as much as Jubilee radio respects the laws of the land in the discharge of its mandate the station will not be silenced by any individual or group of people who may be engaging in acts of lawlessness detrimental to the interest of the general public.
The plaintiff is beseeching the court to grant him damages to the tune of 1 million Ghana cedis against the defendants among other claims.
see below the summons letter;
Filed by: Nelson Ayivor, Keta