The Inquirer (Monrovia)
Sebo Daniels
3 April 2008
The Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) Mr. Harry Greaves has vowed to sue the Management of the Chronicle Newspaper if it fails to retract a story attributed to him in its March 31, 2008 edition, Vol. 12 No. 28 allegedly linking him to former President Taylor's 1989 rebellion.
In an interview with Mr. Greaves yesterday at his LPRC Bushrod Island office, he said after series of consultations with his legal counsel he was advised to ask the paper to retract the story within seven days as to the date of publication.
According to a letter from Mr. Greaves' lawyer, dated march 31, 2008, addressed to the Managing Editor of the National Chronicle, Mr. Emmanuel K. Akyempong indicated that the paper's report which is blatantly and maliciously false holds Mr. Greaves to public ridicule and diminishes his reputation.
More over the letter asserted that the said publication imputes to Mr. Greaves the commission of a crime and is therefore actionable per se.
Lawyers representing Mr. Greaves further reminded the National Chronicle about said publication which states," For Greed of Power and Wealth: Harry Greaves Financed Taylor's War- Killed 250,00 innocent Liberians" suggest that the contents of which are deliberately intended to and have defamed the good name and reputation of their client.
In the paper's reaction to this paper, the former Publisher of the National Chronicle, now Counsel General of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Phillibert Brown, has in no uncertain terms rejected to retract the story.
He said the paper stands by the story and would not concede to Mr. Greaves letter from his legal consul.
"We are prepared to go to court following the seven days ultimatum," the Consul General told The Inquirer in a serious mood.
He explained that the LPRC boss is his friend and that he has nothing personal against him. Explaining further, he noted that the National Chronicle lifted the story from Front Page Africa, an internet web-site prior to the Chronicle publication.
He said the paper has communication allegedly linking Mr. Greaves which a former Minister of Finance, Mr. Byron Tarr wrote to Mr. Greaves when he was with the former National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Meanwhile, Mr. Brown has disclosed that he has forwarded the Greaves letter of request to his lawyers for prompt response prior to the end of the seven days ultimatum.
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