The lawyer for the Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF), Charles Zwennes has indicated that they will be considering their options including a court action to clear their soiled reputation over allegations of extortion at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards held in December last year.
“The propagation of such irresponsible and destructive falsehood made against my client should not be availed the cloak of Parliamentary Immunity which, if had been said anywhere else out in the open, would certainly have given rise to a meritorious court action in defamation. The Foundation is still considering its options” he said.
His remarks follows the Special Committee set up by Parliament to investigate allegations of extortion at the GEBA awards exonerating MEF and the Trades Ministry of any wrong doing.
MEF also praised the ruling by the Special Committee for the “dutiful and diligent” approach by which it discharged its work.
According to Mr Zwennes, the approach by which it discharged its work to arrive at an accurate and an entirely truthful set of findings, which have effectively debunked and discredited those imaginative, mischievous stories and assigned them to the proverbial heap for good.
He however, maintained that despite their acquittal, it has come at a heavy cost to its hitherto unsullied and unquestionable reputation.
“This is not to mention the heavy cost that these false allegations have caused the country also to suffer in terms of the commitment of foreigners to the making of foreign direct investments, market confidence and the image of the leadership of the Republic of Ghana on the international platform”.
Background
Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye last month formed a five member committee to probe into allegations of extortion on the part of Ministry of Trade from expatriate companies.
He announced the ruling on Friday, 5th January, 2018 when the House was recalled through a motion filed by the minority in Parliament.
The members of the committee were Ameyaw Kyeremeh (Chairman), Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, James Klutse Avedzi, and Dominic Ayine.
It would be recalled that on the 29th of December, 2017, an application by the Minority led by its chief whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka filed a motion, calling for investigations into the levy and collection by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Ghana cedi equivalent of various sums of money in U.S.dollars, from expatriate businesses and related matters during the recently held Ghana Expatriate Business Awards in Accra.
