Lawyers for a Deputy National Youth Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Eric Edem Agbana, are demandeding the immediate retraction of a “defamatory publication” authored by the Student Loans Trust Fund (SLTF).
According to them, the publication by SLTF which mentioned their client, Edem Agbana, as a loan defaulter is untrue and was aimed at disparaging his reputation, hence, the need to retract the statement immediately.
“It is our instruction that the SLTF caused the publication to be made mentioning our client among defaulters of the students loan. We find this publication malicious, politically motivated and in a bad taste calculated or aimed at tarnishing our client’s reputation,” they stated in a letter addressed to the management of the SLTF and intercepted by ghananewsonline.com.gh dated Monday, November 25.
The lawyers asserted that Mr Agbana has no arrears to pay to the SLTF, and that, the publication was made to ridicule him without any justification.
“For the records our client does not owe the SLTF. We find a publication by the Trust as defamatory and just meant to put our client up for public ridicule without any justification,” the letter stated.
They demanded that the SLTF retract the defamatory publication and apologize to their client within 72 hours or face legal action.
“We are by this demanding immediate retraction and apology within 72 hours upon service of this letter, failure which we shall take all available legal means for vindication”.
Student loan publication
The management of Student Loan Trust Fund on November 21, 2019, made public the first batch of loan defaulters whose arrears dated as far back as 2010.
Mr Agbana was captured in the publication as a loan defaulter with student ID 10339654 from the University of Ghana.
Due to this, the NDC deputy National Youth Organizer took to social media to debunk claims by the SLTF. He pointed out that, he does not owe the Trust, and that the publication was aimed at tarnishing his image publicly.
He warned that he will not treat his inclusion in the loan defaulter’s list as a “mistake”, and that he was going to use the necessary means to deal with matter.
Source: Jonas Danquah || ghananewsonline.com.gh