NO INTENTION TO DEFAME DR. MICHAEL ABU SAKARA IN ARTICLE ON NDC JOINING KISSI AGYEBENG AND JOY FM
THERE WAS NO INTENTION TO DEFAME DR. MICHAEL ABU SAKARA IN THE ARTICLE - “THE NDC NEEDS TO THINK LONG BEFORE JOINING KISSI AGYEBENG AND JOY FM ....”
BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
I received on 3 June 2024 by email an attached PDF letter also dated 3 June 2024 from the lawyers of Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster alleging that some portions of my article published in the media on 27 May 2024 on the subject: “The NDC needs to think long before joining Kissi Agyebeng and Joy FM to try me in the court of public opinion” were defamatory of him. I denied defaming Dr. Abu Sakara Foster in the said article giving reasons for my contention and explaining the fact that I held Dr. Abu Sakara in high esteem. I, therefore, publish hereunder the content of my email to Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster’s lawyers to demonstrate that there was no intention to defame him, and I disagree that I defamed him in my said article. The content of my email to Dr. Sakara Foster’ lawyers dated 3 June 2024 is as shown hereunder.
Dear Mr. Azanne Kofi Akainyah,
I have received your email with its attached letter with reference number ABU-SAKARA-1 dated today, 3 June 2024 on the above subject matter.
Dr. Abu Sakara himself knows that I have great respect for him and will in no way intentionally write any defamatory words about or against him. When the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was investigating the Airbus SE Bribery allegations his name only surfaced because Samuel Adam Foster claimed Dr. Sakara’s residence as abode in Ghana on the forms, he filled at the Ghana Immigration Service at the Kotoka International Airport upon his first entry into Ghana. Your letter under reference agrees that this was on or about 10 June 2006 when there was no Airbus SE-Ghana case. The sentence in my article read within its context uses the words "...., the hotels and leased apartment Samuel Adam Mahama Forster and his UK friends resided in, including the ... where "Samuel Adam Foster claimed as his abode on the forms, he filled at the Ghana Immigration Service at the Kotoka International Airport upon his first entry into Ghana with his UK friends." There is nothing in my article under reference that said or says that Samuel Adam Foster's UK friends also filled on their immigration forms that their place of abode was Dr. Sakara's residence to create the insinuated impression that they resided with Dr Sakara. Based on Samuel Adam Foster’s claim on his immigration form, I reached out to Dr. Sakara through a third person, whose name Dr. Sakara may recollect, and I can supply to Dr. Sakara alone in confidence to aid his recollection for now. I then learnt about the narrative that the Rev. Mr. Foster, the adopted father of Dr. Sakara and Samuel Adam Foster had told another parent about the two mango trees and their fruits which was praiseworthy of, and testimony to, Dr. Abu Sakara and his achievements in life.
The allegation that the property at Roman Ridge was a government property was an intelligence led information to the investigation team by an informant which Dr. Sakara now points out in your letter to me was a misrepresentation of the actual facts. Dr. Abu Sakara has never been a subject of the investigation otherwise I would not have reached out to him through a third person acquainted with both of us. In my understanding, any person who may throw light on an investigation may be invited as a witness and interrogated and that is the context in which I used the words "in case he was required for interrogation". Insisting that I should have used the word "interview" instead of the word "interrogated" is a play on words. He was never required for any interrogation and was not invited because after speaking to the third-party intermediary and learning through the two mongo trees narrative about Dr. Sakara’s integrity, accomplishments and how he took care of his late foster parents, the late Revs. Mr. and Mrs. Foster in life and after death, there was no need to do so, let alone to further investigate the other intelligence received and recorded in the OSP about his residence. In consequence, to insinuate or create an innuendo that Dr. Abu Sakara was an accomplice in the Airbus SE-Ghana case is far-fetched. Dr. Sakara has never been under investigation in the Airbus SE case, and he knows that I reached out to him during the investigation.
The two mango trees and other commendable narratives which the intermediary I asked to reach out to Dr. Sakara passed on to me showed clearly that Dr. Sakara is a self-accomplished person and not the fruit of the mango tree that falls only to stay where it fell. Dr. Sakara and me know each other and you need not remind me of his accomplishment and prominence as a Ghanaian leader and politician. I will be the last person to defame Dr. Sakara and I completely disagree with your assertion that I defamed him in my article under reference. I need not point out to you as a lawyer that it will not be in the interest of Dr. Abu Sakara, or I should the advice of your threat of legal action against me for defamation lead to the remotest unintended perception in the public mind that the threat and consequential legal action may have something to do with Dr. Sakara sharing the same foster name and father with Samuel Adam Mahama Foster.
I apologize to Dr. Sakara about repeating the disinformation the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) received about the vendor of his property referred to in my article and the fact that if my article has created any wrong impressions about his accomplishment and integrity, they were unintended. As you well know, I will not be able to erase any privileged misinformation and records collected under Act 959 at the OSP now that I am out of that Office.
I am willing to publish the content of this email, unedited, to the public whom Dr. Sakara or you are worried of, to demonstrate that there was no intention to bring the integrity or reputation of Dr. Sakara into disrepute as I have always held him in high esteem.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
POSTSCRIPT:
I have re-emphasized in an email exchange with Dr. Abu Sakara Foster’s lawyers today, 4 June 2024, inter alia, that: “.... There was no intention to defame Dr. Abu Sakara and I have not admitted defaming him. My reply to you of 3 June 2024 should not, therefore, be misconstrued or interpretated in any way to mean that I am afraid of contesting any legal action in defamation...”
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
4 June 2024