The amount was awarded as damages for a defamatory publication against him.

[contextly_sidebar id=”eJzpjgibopKSriyyacmJ8c1ePr5Mr7jm”]The court made the order after it found them guilty of defaming Mr. Owusu Agyeman.

The court also asked the defendants to, within two weeks, retract the defamatory story and apologise on the front-page of the paper.

The former Minister of State Hackman Owusu Agyeman filed a GHc5 million suit against Giraffe Publications, publishers of the Daily Post newspaper and the Editor, Michael Dokosi, and one Haruna Mahama, for defamation for remarks by the Daily Post.

Mr. Dokosi and Mahama Haruna alleged that Mr. Owusu-Agyemang recorded and leaked a tape of a secret meeting between former President John Kufuor, some members of the clergy and some party elders at the former’s residence in Accra recently.

According to the publication, Mr. Owusu-Agyemang had been accused by Mahama Haruna of recording the meeting and leaking the story to embarrass former President and the clergy for saying things that will not inure to the sustenance of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the NPP, lost the 2016 elections.

Among the claims sought by Mr. Owusu-Agyeman were; “damage for libel in the sum of GHc 5 million, an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the Defendants, whether by themselves, their agents, servants, workmen, privies or any of them or otherwise from further writing, printing, publishing and/or causing to be written, printed and published the said words or similar statements defamatory of the plaintiff.”

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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Hackman to bag GHc 800,000 from Daily Post publishers appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Asafu Adjei, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo Constituency, said he was shocked upon hearing that the COCOBOD CEO receive such a colossal amount.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fwvWGPxZObYxvXS3s90cHhEY74ufJfcR”]His comment follows the revelation by the new Board Chair for COCOBOD, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, who similarly expressed concern about the huge salary.

“For me, it is absolutely unthinkable that the gross salary of the Chief Executive Officer should be in the neighbourhood of GHc 70,000 to GHc 75,000 a month, and the net is about GHc 55, 000 to GHc 57,000 a month. If you even discount this by 50 percent, it would still be higher than anybody under article 71 of the constitution,” Hackman Owusu-Agyeman noted.

The revelation has stirred public debate with many Ghanaians questioning the rational in paying such huge amounts at the expense of cocoa farmers who are largely impoverished, coupled with the fact that the cocoa sector hasn’t seen significant growth.

Mr. Asafu Adjei, in an interview with Citi News’ Duke Mensah-Opoku, said the best thing Dr. Opuni should have done was to have turned down the money on moral grounds.

“I was shocked and surprised to hear that a whooping sum of GHc70,000 is paid to the Chief Executive of COCOBOD. I don’t even believe that the President is even paid GHc30, 000. How can a public servant collect that sum? I don’t know the operations and organization of COCOBOD, but if it is anything at all, it is the board of directors that approve the money and I believe that the Chief Executive, morally, should have refused that huge sum.”

“The board has approved it so what? The board does not own COCOBOD, so he should have said, thank you, but I can’t take GHc70, 000,” Asafu Adjei insisted.

I’ll cut salaries of top management 

Hackman Owusu-Agyeman has indicated his commitment to ensure a reduction in the salaries of the top management members of the state agency.

Mr. Owusu-Agyeman asserted that, COCOBOD as an institution had to fall in line with the state remuneration structure.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Opuni should have rejected GHc70, 000 salary – MP appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Other members who were appointed to serve on the Board including Kwame Sarpong, Carlos Ahenkorah, Nana Johnson Mensah, among others, were also sworn in today [Tuesday].

[contextly_sidebar id=”DD4JaVDOsSVogGgaKSNrATkZymz49l2E”]Mr. Owusu-Agyemang takes over from the immediate-past Board Chairman of COCOBOD, Daniel Ohene Agyekum, who served as Ashanti Regional Minister and Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

The swearing ceremony comes weeks after a probe into the activities of the former Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Frimpong over corruption allegations.

Dr. Opuni was on January 12, 2017, asked to leave office shortly after the new NPP government was inaugurated.

As a former CEO of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Dr. Stephen K. Opuni was appointed by former President John Mahama on November 30, 2013, to head the COCOBOD.

He replaced Anthony Fofie, who headed COCOBOD from 2009.

Swearing in the new appointees, President Nana Addo indicated that, cocoa has been Ghana’s “flagship commodity on the international scale and a source of good livelihood for several generations of Ghanaian farmers”, but was quick to add that interest in cocoa farming has “waned in recent years” due to several factors including illegal mining.

The President however declared government’s commitment to reviving the cocoa industry by increasing production.

“The government and I have made a commitment to raising production levels of cocoa to at least 1 million tonnes, and to process more than 50 percent of our cocoa beans. We have committed ourselves to finding new markets and improving our cocoa value chain. We are determined to make it a lucrative industry again. We are going to need your cooperation and full involvement.”

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post Hackman Owusu-Agyeman sworn in as COCOBOD Chair appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.