Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, has vehemently denied claims of defaming legal luminary and managing partner at Fugar & Company, William Fugar, in his autobiography.
Following the publication of Prof Addae-Mensah’s autobiography, titled ‘My Life: A Historical Narrative,’ William Fugar, in a demand notice dated December 21, addressed to Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, accused the former Vice-Chancellor of defaming him.
Responding to the claims, Azanne Kofi Akainyah, the lawyer for Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, explained, “You have stated that some words at page 45 of the autobiography are defamatory. My client denies that such is the case.”
“You claim that these words have, since they were published, ‘lowered our client in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally and, in particular, have cause[d] our client to be treated with abhorrence, derision, disdain, odium, opprobrium and scorn’, not only in Ghana but in Africa and the world at large. In this regard, it is pertinent to point out that the autobiography was published only in October 2023.”
Prof Addae-Mensah’s lawyers insisted that their client bears no malice against William Fugar, stressing that events recounted in the autobiography are not current affairs but ‘distant history.’
“Firstly, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah bears no animosity or malice to your client and does not seek to question his integrity. The autobiography is a historical narrative that in part discusses the internecine machinations in the PNP [People’s National Party] in the hectic period of 1979 during the period of transition to civilian rule, when some party members sought to prevent Mr Egala and Dr Limann from taking office. It is not current affairs. It is a distant history,” Prof Addae-Mensah’s lawyers explained.
