Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, a well-known politician of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has filed a libel suit against Bismark Tawiah Boateng, Eastern Regional Chairman of the NDC (1st Defendant), The Daily Guide newspaper (2nd Defendant), Western Publications Limited, the publishing house for the Daily Guide (3rd Defendant), Fortune Alimi, editor of the Daily Guide (4th Defendant), William Yaw Owusu, news reporter at the Daily Guide newspaper (5th Defendant), Okay FM (6th Defendant), and Kwame Nkrumah a.k.a ‘Tikesie’, host of ‘Ade Akye Abia’ (7th Defendant).
The Plaintiff, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo avers that on the 27th of October, 2017, Bismark Tawiah Boateng (1st Defendant) printed and published or caused to be printed and published on ghananewsreports.com an online internet portal, statements which are defamatory of the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff avers that the defamatory statements assert that the Plaintiff, who is a National Vice Chairman of the NDC, dishonestly and without authority provided the Daily Guide newspaper with the Dr. Kwesi Botchway Committee’s Report who in turn has been serializing it even though the NDC has officially declared and kept the report as a confidential document
Also, that the Plaintiff, a National Vice Chairman of the Party is a traitor to the NDC’s cause of forging unity amongst its members and has been unprofessional, unscrupulous and untrustworthy.
The Plaintiff avers further that on the 27th of October 2017, on “Morning Agenda” radio programme on Oman FM, 1st Defendant again caused to be published the following words or statement, which are defamatory of the Plaintiff:
“When there was a vacancy at the presidency following the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, he (Ofosu-Ampofo) wanted President Mahama, who was then acting, to select him (plaintiff) as his vice…He (Plaintiff) called some of us together to help him to become the vice president when he was the Local Government Minister and I even asked him (Plaintiff) to tell us about his educational qualification so that we would know how to lobby for him. I attended the meeting together with our regional women’s organiser, our then chairman (Julius Debrah) our youth organiser and Nana Mamfehene in the presence of Mr. Kofi Attoh at the Ministry of Local Government in Accra and Ofosu-Ampofo asked us to lobby for him to become vice president”.
The Plaintiff avers that Okay FM, the 6th Defendant acting by Kwame Nkrumah, the 7th Defendant, granted unrestricted air time to the 1st Defendant on the 25th of October, 2017, to publish statements that are defamatory of the Plaintiff and that the 1st Defendant while being interviewed by the 7th Defendant on the “Ade Akye Abia” morning show, accused the Plaintiff of being the one who leaked the Dr. Kwesi Botchway Committee Report to the Daily Guide newspaper, as part of the Plaintiff’s agenda to malign the 1st Defendant.
The suit indicates that on the front page and page 3 of the 30th October, 2017 issue of the Daily Guide newspaper, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Defendants re-published the words of the 1st Defendant and other false statements which are defamatory of the Plaintiff under the headline “NDC GURUS IN DIRTY FIGHT”.
The Plaintiff avers that he has over the years, by providence, honesty, integrity and diligence, built an excellent and respected reputation for himself having worked as a teacher and served in various political positions.
Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo avers that as a result of the publications maliciously made by the Defendants, his reputation has been seriously damaged and lowered in the estimation and minds of ordinary and right thinking members of society and he has suffered considerable embarrassment and distress.
The Plaintiff claims against the Defendants jointly and severally, aggravated damages for libel in the sum of Ten Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 10,000,000.00), general damages for libel, a perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants and each of them, their servants, agents or assigns from further publishing or causing to be published the said or similar words defamatory of the Plaintiff, and costs, including reasonable attorney fees.
