Asantehene’s Alleged Bribery Scandal: Free Press Editor Denies Publication ...

Asantehene’s Alleged Bribery Scandal: Free Press Editor Denies Publication ... The Editor at the center of the Asantehene’s alleged bribery scandal, Emma Lawson, has vehemently denied the publication attributed to the newspaper.  Emma Lawson says the New Free Press has no idea where the story originated from. According to her, the said publication was based on an anonymous website sourcing her organization as the author. She added that since the story hit the newsstand, her office has been flooded by some security intelligence personnel, tasked with investigating the publication. The New Free Press online recently published that the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, allegedly brokered a bribery deal between President Mahama and two of the nine Justices that sat on the 2012 election petition case. The publication triggered Chiefs at Manyhia in the Ashanti Region to lodge a formal complaint with the National Media Commission (NMC) to haul the editor and publisher of the Free Press Newspaper to retract the “malicious allegations” of bribery against the Asantehene. The Manhyia Palace has already denied the allegation in a statement describing the allegation as “insulting and reprehensible”. But speaking to Adom FM in an interview, Miss Emma Lawson categorically stated that; “We (Free Press) have not done anything. We have not published such a story. We don’t have any Free Press online apart from our newspaper. The story is circulating via online and we know nothing about it. Even news vendors don’t have such story in our publications”. Adding that, “…I have not been in town for the past two weeks. What is going on is really tarnishing the image of Free Press. Now all our computers are with the Police for investigation but nothing has been found. I don’t even know what is going on. I can categorically say that we have not published any such story”.

Source: King Edward Ambrose/Peacefmonline.com