A Deputy Information Minister, James Agyenim Boateng has denied media reports that president JEA Mills met with some commandos and cadres of the erstwhile PNDC and gave each of them GH¢400. He said there was no iota of truth in the story, describing the report as a reckless report born of the figment of the journalist’s own imagination. Mr Agyenim Boateng was reacting to a story carried by the Wednesday, March 10 edition of the Today newspaper which claimed that the president met with commandos and cadres and gave them money to placate them. According to the paper, president Mills met with “commando-trainees currently undergoing military training exercise at the Asutsuare military camp and other cadres of the 31 st December 1981 revolution…on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at exactly 8pm.” The paper, claimed that at the end of the two hour meeting, “each of the 80 personnel who attended the meeting [was] richer by GH¢400.” The Editor-in-Chief of the Today newspaper, Mr Richmond Duke Keelson said he has proof and will produce that at the appropriate time and forum. But that story, the Deputy Information Minister, told Joy FM’s Super Morning host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, is a total fabrication. “I am shocked, indeed I am amazed at the sheer irresponsible journalism which camouflaged and hoisted on stilt as if this is a fact, this is the height of irresponsible journalism,” he said. An obviously livid Agyenim Boateng said, “I cannot imagine a person like Richmond Keelson – somebody I met in practice in journalism – stooped this low, this height of irresponsible journalism clearly cannot be countenanced.” He said newspaper editors have a duty to produce evidence to back their stories. “No such meeting has taken place at the Castle in the first place, I don’t know the kind of people he refers to as commandos, am not in the know and there is nobody who is in the know about” the president meeting with anybody at the Castle, he emphasised. Mr Agyenim Boateng said if the Today newspaper and its editors have any credibility – on which the media thrive – they should do credible stories with substantial evidence. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana