General News of Friday, 2 November 2012
Source: The Herald
Decent-minded Ghanaians are stunned and very worried about the sale of Law Certificates at the Ghana Law School, and other malpractices as revealed by The Herald in its Monday’s publication.
Unknown to this paper, it had triggered an action that would open a can of worms that insiders believe requires a long brush to clean, especially from the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-Generals Department .
The issue has brought so much pressure onto the authorities at the school and the former director of the Law School, Mr. George Agyeman Sarpong under whose watch and alleged participation the malpractices thrived.
But just when the Former Director of the Law School run to seek refuge under the cover of deflation, the Registrar of the School, Nana Fredua Agyemang popped up begging The Herald to forgive the sins of his former boss and save the remaining reputation of the school that has trained some great lawyers in the past.
Nana Fredua Agyemang placed a call to The Herald at 4:21 pm yesterday pleading for the paper to temper justice with mercy.
He expressed shock at the court action taken by the ex-director of the Law School, saying all the issues reported by The Herald were true, therefore, he is personally surprised that his ex-boss was dragging the paper to court for reporting the truth.
The registrar, who claimed to be a onetime journalist, who had worked with the Daily Graphic, was emphatic that the reports emanating from the Law School, was tarnishing the international image of the school which has had an enviable record for all these years.
He said, “I am on my knees begging you to separate the Law School from what Sarpong, did”.
Asked whether he was aware a committee investigated the ex-director, Nana Fredua Agyemang responded in the affirmative, after stating his credentials as a journalist for many years.
His call which was placed on a speaker by this reporter, surprised the reporters on The Herald, with some asking if he knows the truth, will he be prepared to testify on behalf of the paper in court to better safe the image of an institution bedeviled with corruption, victimization, favouritism and other underhand dealing which have led to the dismissal and interdiction of some officers?
Following calls from some people at the Law School’s administration department, confirming The Herald’s story, the President of the Private Newspaper Publishes Association (PRINPAG), Mr. Laryea Silla aka Kenteman, also rang the paper to communicate the embarrassment that the school was suffering as a result of the damning revelation.
He said the Law School authorities have indicated their readiness to meet some 12 editors of newspapers next week, preferably at Dynasty Chinese Restaurant in Osu-Accra, to explain their position on the matter.
Mr. Laryea Silla, said the school officials had met him and Mrs. Gina Blay of the Daily Guide newspaper and expressed their discomfort over the publications, and the need to take out the school, while focusing squarely on the ex-director.
Interestingly, Nene Amegatcher, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) is said to have told Law students in his class, last Wednesday, that he had chaired a committee to investigate his former boss, Mr. Sarpong, over allegations of exams malpractices.
The GBA boss told the students that Mr. Sarpong was not found guilty of the allegations against him.
However, reports reaching ‘The Herald’ reveal that some members of Mr. Amegatcher’s Committee hold contrary views on Mr. Sarpong on the issue of the exam malpractices; they are not happy with the findings on the former director.
Ironically, Nene Amegatcher is sitting on the report, which has no adverse findings against his former boss, for the past
While Mr. Sarpong has dashed to the Court to file a writ against the paper and subsequently followed it with an interlocutory injection to gag it (the paper) from further exposing the rot he allegedly presided over at the school, individuals from the school’s administration have called, conceding that The Herald’s story is true and that they think it is unwise for the former director to institute a Court action against the paper.
Meanwhile “Joy FM” and its morning show host, Bernard Nasara Shaibu have been made to retract and apologise for reviewing the story last Tuesday.
The paper gathered that Mr. Sarpong sent Joy Fm a letter, asking for the apology and retraction so that they could be left out of the court action he had initially instituted against them and The Herald.
“You people are not my target, it is The Herald and its agents that I want, so just do an apology and retraction and that will be okay”, stated Sarpong to “Joy Fm”, according to an insider at the radio station.
This paper learnt that management of the radio station insisted on begging Mr. Sarpong to withdraw the station from the law suit, a demand the poor workers reluctantly succumbed to.
The radio station subsequently aired a news bulletin, reporting on the content of the suit, that was minus their so-called liability.
Below is what Joy FM, which had hitherto called on Chief Justice Georgina Wood to investigate the claims of the students. The radio station reported that…….
The immediate past Director of the Ghana School of Law, George Sarpong, has denied The Herald newspaper publication, citing him in an alleged exam malpractice at the school.
His lawyers have filed a suit at the High Court claiming damages for libel.
They say the claim by the paper that their client attempted to add a student said to be his nephew to the list of students who had passed exams to be enrolled as lawyers when that student had deferred the course to study abroad was complete fabrication.
Below are portions of a letter written by Mr. Sarpong’s lawyers to explain what exactly transpired:
“To set the records straight, prior to the publication of the said pass list, our Client was the person who noticed in his office, the erroneous inclusion of the name of the said Budu. This was in the presence of a past President of the Ghana Bar Association, the current Director of the Law School and a Senior Lecturer of the School. Our Client instantly gave firm instructions to Mr. Peter Worglo, the Records Officer to delete the name of Budu from the list since the student did not write the examinations having been granted a deferment of the course for the academic year.
As events unfolded, the list subsequently placed on the Notice Board of the School, by the said Peter Worglo, still erroneously carried the name of the said Budu; our Client upon sighting this error on the Notice Board, cancelled out the name of the said Budu from the list on the Notice Board and thereafter, with the knowledge and consent of the incumbent Director, supervised the replacement of the corrected list on the Notice Board.
In respect of the allegations about admissions and request for re-marking; those are the imaginations of the publishers of the offensive article and it remains their burden, in Court, to establish same. Our client neither engaged in any acts of criminality as alleged by the said publication, nor did he condone any acts of criminality during his stewardship of the Law School as alleged or at all.”
The lawyers also chastised Joy FM’s Super Morning Show for reviewing the story on the Show’s newspaper review segment without first verifying the truth or otherwise of the story with those accused of wrongdoing. Sit-In Show host Bernard Shaibu this morning read a letter of retraction and apology by the Multimedia Group to Mr. Sarpong.