April 26, 2008 (Page 3 Lead)
TWO lawyers of the Ghana Commercial Bank yesterday took a swipe at the Daily Graphic for allegedly reporting on a case between Greenland Hotel and the bank under the influence of counsel for the hotel.
The scene was at the Accra Commercial Court, presided over by Mr Justice Marful Sau. One of the lawyers, Mrs Abena Ntrakwa-Mensah, stated in open court that counsel for Greenland Hotel had “procured the services” of the Daily Graphic reporter to follow the case.
And to make matters worse, a male colleague of Mrs Ntrakwa-Mensah’s whose name the Daily Graphic gathered is Mr Kwadwo Ntrakwa, fuelled the embarrassment of this reporter when he rudely asked her, after the court proceedings, what business she had in reporting a matter which was between two corporate bodies.
According to sources close to the Daily Graphic, Mr Ntrakwa is Mrs Ntrakwa-Mensah’s brother.
It all started when Mrs Ntrakwa-Mensah said she had seen counsel for Greenland Hotel, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, in a chat with the reporter when she (reporter) entered the courtroom.
That, Mrs Ntrakwa-Yeboah said, was suggestive that Mr Dame had acquired the services of the reporter to publicise the case.
The whole courtroom virtually looked towards the direction of the reporter because counsel had her eyes fixed on where she (reporter) was seated while she (counsel) spoke.
However, Mr Dame quickly rebutted Mrs Ntrakwa-Mensah’s claims and said he knew the Daily Graphic reporter as having been reporting from the courts regularly.
He also said the Daily Graphic had published the closure of the hotel in its April 18, 2008 edition and it was, therefore, only fair for the paper to publish the hotel's side of the story.
Mr Justice Sau, an Appeal Court judge who was sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, nevertheless, proceeded to bring the attention of counsel to the substantive issue.
But Mr Ntrakwa was unperturbed after the proceedings when the reporter approached his sister to clarify whether her surname was a compound name or not.
Probably out of ignorance, Mr Ntrakwa, who could not understand why the Daily Graphic should cover the proceedings of a case of public interest, also confronted the reporter and cast aspersions on her.
The substantive case was adjourned to April 28, 2008 to enable the GCB to reply to matters raised by the management of the hotel.
The management of the hotel has filed a motion praying the court to order the re-opening of the hotel, which was closed down as a result of its GH¢1.1 million indebtedness to the GCB.
The Chief Executive Officer of the hotel, Dr Alexander Eyiah, is also praying the court for an order setting aside the unlawful execution on April 16, 2008 of the judgement entered in default of appearance and for a further order prohibiting the registrar of the court from sealing off, closing down or in any way interfering with the defendant/applicant’s use or possession of Greenland Hotel Limited until a sale by public auction, if any, has been properly carried out on the orders of the court.
The hotel was closed down as a result of the inability of its management to repay the remaining GH¢1.1 million which is part of a loan it took from the GCB.
The GCB took action against the hotel on October 8, 2007 and a judgement dated October 31, 2007 was entered against it in default of appearance.
Mrs Ntrakwa-Mensah had earlier informed the court that her client was short served and, therefore, she needed enough time to appropriately respond to issues raised by Dr Eyiah.
Mr Dame said there was an urgency to the matter because the hotel had been closed down for more than a week and it was currently incurring heavy losses.
Mr Justice Sau advised parties in the matter to make efforts to negotiate.
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