Wikileaks Reports Has �Double Arrowed� Effects � Chris Ackumey

A member of the legal team of the ruling NDC says recent publications by Wikileaks has given the Ghanaian an opportunity to see what politicians are in their private lives as well as in officialdom. Lawyer Chris Ackumey explained that appointments into public offices had its requirements and as such, Wikileaks� publication gave Ghanaians an opportunity to assess people in public offices as to whether they had such qualifications. �To hold a public office, there is some kind of constitutional requirement�so if we look at the leaks, we must be able to judge whether politicians who have been so mentioned in the leaks�the allegations made about them actually qualifies them in our reckoning to be politicians or to be voted for�,� he said. Lawyer Ackumey was speaking on recent information which has been published by whistle-blower website, Wikileaks. Speaking to Abena Asiedua Tenkorang, host of the Big Bite on Xfm 95.1, Lawyer Ackumey expressed mixed feelings about recent cable leakages on some personalities, saying the effects of the revelations are �double arrowed�. According to him, though he saw a positive and negative effect to the cable leakages, the positive aspect of the revelations out-weighs the negative. Taking the issue from a legal angle, Barrister Ackumey stressed that the fact that the individuals who have been mentioned in the leakages were unaware they were being recorded is an infringement on their rights. He was however quick to add that those who recorded the conversation could be excused since they did not publish those conversations. On leakages on the NDC, the barrister explained that individual opinions of people about others were not against the laws of the land as long as such opinions did not infringe on the rights of the other person. The barrister described recent leakage on Ms. Hannah Tetteh�s conversation with the US ambassador as unfortunate since he believes the conversation between the two was a private one. He added that the revelations should not affect the relationship between party members since he believed that some good could be derived from every criticism. �I think that the party chairman must accept it and improve upon it. That�s how I�ll look at it. I would want to find out; why am I being described as this and try to make efforts in order to make up�� Lawyer Ackumey said this in relation to Ms. Hanna's assertion that the party chairman was immature.