Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources’ legal team has demanded an unequivocal apology in a letter to the Multimedia Group, for making “false statements” that $5 million and GHC48 million had been discovered in her Prudential Bank Accounts.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) refuted the reportage, but according to Madam Dapaah’s attorneys, JoyNews continued to spread the purported misinformation via its different social media channels.
On August 10, it was revealed that the OSP had found a sizeable sum of $590,000 in cash during its investigation of the former Minister’s Abelemkpe home. The report further stated that an astonishing sum of GH2.7 million in cash was found there. Following that, the Special Prosecutor blocked seven of the former minister’s accounts.
Several media outlets, including Joy News, stated that their sources at the OSP reported that $5 million and GHC48 million were uncovered in the former Minister’s bank accounts after the report became public.
In a letter to the Multimedia Group, the attorneys for Madam Dapaah claimed that an OSP statement had corrected the narrative; yet, the media outlet persisted in publishing articles on the subject that were filled with animosity.
“Although, the Application did not disclose any specific amounts of money found in the bank accounts, your news outlet, JoyNews published false information about the amounts in those accounts while ascribing the information to nameless, unidentified and unverifiable sources. Specifically, at about 12:30pm on 10th August 2023, your outlet published a story titled “OSP tracks $5m, finds GHC 48m in Cecilia Dapaah’s Prudential Bank accounts”. Within that story, your outlet proceeded to publish that, sources at the OSP had disclosed amounts of money in the frozen bank accounts of our client and mentioned that other monies had been found in another account.
“Again, at about 2pm, your outlet shared multiple stories titled “Joy News Prime | | Cecilia Dapaah Case: OSP tracks $5m in total bank transactions over a period” and “JoyNews Today || OSP finds $5million and Ghc48 million in Cecilia Dapaah’s bank accounts” on the social media platform YouTube. Not only had the OSP not disclosed any amounts found in our client’s accounts, but the assertion that our client’s accounts contain $5m and GHC48m is false. Despite this rebuttal, at 7pm of 10th August 2023, your outfit continued to post material alluding to the false statement that $5m and GHS48m had been found in our client’s bank accounts.”
Cecilia Dapaah’s Lawyers
The letter claimed that, in light of the aforementioned, it was clear that the organization had consistently reported on Cecilia Dapaah’s case with a blatant disregard for the truth and accuracy. It also claimed that Joynews had published figures about the amounts in Cecilia Dapaah’s bank accounts that were false, but the media outlet had persisted in spreading these lies that it attributed to unnamed and unverified sources.
JoyNews Deliberately Inputed Wrongdoings On Client
The former Minister of Sanitation’s attorneys also claimed that it was clear that the organization’s reporting and publications were motivated by malice and a calculated or careless attempt to accuse their client of wrongdoing, which is against the constitutionally guaranteed and time-honored principle of her innocence.
Cecila Dapaah is therefore requesting an apology and retraction or else she would take the media outlet to court.
“We are by this letter demanding that your outfit retracts the false information it has published and apologizes to our client within three (3) days from the delivery of this letter (using the same means and coverage with which it published the false information), failing which we have our client’s firm instructions to institute legal action and bring the full force of the law to bear on your outfit for the damage and injury your reportage has caused and keeps causing.”
Cecilia Dapaah’s Lawyers
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