The High Court has ordered the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako,  popularly referred to as Chairman Wontumi, to be served by substituted service.

It means that copies of the writ of summons and the statement of claim will be posted at the NPP regional office and the High Court and Circuit Court notice boards.

Once that is done, it will be concluded that he (Wontumi) has been served.

The court makes such an order when a defendant evades services.

The court bailiffs indicated that they had been to his office over three times but he always managed to avoid them.

Agyapong drags Wontumi to court

It will be recalled that the suspended General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, dragged Chairman Wontumi and the Multimedia Group before the High Court over alleged defamatory comments.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako, according to the suit, made statements that sought to defame Mr Agyapong on Kumasi-based Nhyira FM and Accra-based Neat FM.

Chairman Wontumi is alleged to have said that the indefinitely suspended NPP General Secretary betrayed his party by associating with elements of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in a bid to work against the NPP.

Lawyers for the embattled general secretary are seeking from the court “an order compelling the first defendant to immediately retract the defamatory statement via the same medium used in making them, thus through the frequency modulation of the second defendant and to render an unqualified apology to the plaintiff via the same media.

“An order of the court compelling the first defendant to write a letter personally addressed to the plaintiff admitting his comments were untrue and unfortunate and give his tacit commitment never again to spew such falsehood and scandalous defamatory remarks on the person of the plaintiff," the writ said.

Source: Daily Graphic