The troubled parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Effutu Constituency, James Kofi Annan, has been ordered by a District Court in Winneba to immediately retract some untrue and defamatory statements he made against Alexander Afeneyo-Markin and also make a public apology to him latest by close of day today Monday.
The court, presided over by His Worship, Isaac Oheneba-Kuffour Esq ruled that James Kofi Annan’s retraction and apology must be made through the same media houses he addressed as a press conference he held on March 17, 2020 and that the said media houses present include Adom TV, Joy TV and United Television.
“The online media outlets are to equally carry the apology and retraction to be released by rendered by the Defendant between today and Monday 31st August, 2020.
“General damages is assessed as GHC20, 000.00 with cost of GHC5, 000.00 against the Defendant”, the court ruled on Friday August 28.
The court ruling as caused yet another cause of complaints against the NDC candidate from several members of the party within the Effutu Constituency.
They argue that until recently, James Kofi Annan was an independent candidate who has his campaign bill boards all over the constituency and was generally perceived as not a known NDC member.
James Kofi Annan only became the NDC candidate in February with barely some 10 months to the polls because the then duly elected NDC candidate, Victor Hanson, resigned the position and stepped aside.
The candidature of James Kofi Annan on the ticket of the NDC has also brought the party a new set of official challenges including charges of stealing that was slapped on his and landed him in court.
He was dragged to court and charged for dishonestly receiving money into his bank accounts contrary to section 147 of Act 29 and also charged for stealing which is contrary to section 124 of the same Act.
To add salt to his injuries, several fisher folks and their families who dwell along the shores of the Effutu Constituency have raised issues against James Kofi Annan over suspicions that his NGO, Challenging Heights, has been used to accuse them of several wrongs they claim innocence.
The NPP candidate, Afenyo-Markin, on the other hand is on a smooth sail campaign focused on job creation and, the unity of Effutuman and attracting investors to the area through a concept known as the ‘Effutu Dream’
The Effutu Dream is a brainchild of Afenyo-Markin and has become a mass movement meant to galvanize the energies, dreams and aspirations of Effutu Youth and channel these energies and aspirations into progress and development but for the individuals and the community as a whole.
It is my dream to make Effutu the best place to live, the best place to work, the best place to visit for tourism and the best place to invest and to do business in Ghana. The Dream is to make sure that all persons living, working and schooling in Effutu has what it takes to compete favourably with their contemporaries anywhere in the world. And with the right mindset, unity and hard work, we can make this Dream a reality.
“Already we have started living this dream by providing an enabling environment for the people of Effutu to become productive. When I started this project to create an enabling environment, some people who are only interested in jailing our fishermen and painting Effutu black to the outside world were going round saying Effutus are lazy people”, Afenyo-Markin noted.
