Ken Ofori-Atta - Plaintiff
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, December 29, 2014
Ken Ofori-Atta, Chairman
of Databank Financial Services Limited - a financial giant – has filed a case
of defamation against Sam George Nartey, a Communications Consultant to
President John Mahama at an Accra Fast Track High Court.
The suit file filed
on December 23 by the plaintiff’s lawyers, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah,
which also joined Network Broadcasting Limited, operators of Radio Gold 90.5 is asking for a whopping
GH¢100million in damages.
Evading Service
Sam George was
reportedly served with the writ of summons on Saturday after news went viral on
various social media platforms that he allegedly evaded service but it was not
clear if Radio Gold as the second
defendant had been served.
According to the
plaintiff, Sam George on Radio Gold’s
news analysis programme Alhaji & Alhaji aired on October 18, 2014 claimed
that Mr. Ofori-Atta evaded taxes and did not pay his taxes but gets up and
wants to ‘Occupy’ in reference to his association with the fast growing
pressure group called Occupy Ghana which is fighting against corruption and bad
governance in the country.
The plaintiff quoted
Sam George as saying on Radio Gold
that he (Mr. Ofori-Atta) has evaded tax to the tune of GHC1.6 million and added
“This same Ken Ofori-Atta has been fingered in the fraudulent forex account
that the General Secretary and Chairman of the NPP spoke about that was opened
in the name of the NPP abroad and certain people were using it as a slush fund.”
The plaintiff
continued “when you finish all of this illegality, you have the moral
turpitude, the audacity, the pedagogy to come and stand there and say that you
are going to occupy-occupy the Flagstaff House.”
Sam George - Defendant
Mr. Ofori-Atta
further quoted Sam George as saying “They should occupy Databank and from there
they should go and occupy Odaw-Odaw river, we need people to clean it. It's
National Volunteer Day, they should go and clean the Odaw River, they should clean
their acts,” adding “you cannot sit in this country and people will run this
country down, create a mess, turn around and blame the President and his team
for the mess.”
Plaintiff’s Claims
Mr. Ofori-Atta is
claiming against the defendants jointly and severally a declaration that the
statements made by Sam George on ‘Alhaji & Alhaji,’ hosted by Alhassan
Suhiyini on Radio Gold “are false,
malicious and defamatory”
The plaintiff wants “an
order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from broadcasting,
writing or in any other way, publishing the same or similar defamatory statements
about the plaintiff,” as well as “an order directed at the defendants,
compelling them to broadcast a full and unqualified apology to the Plaintiff
and retraction of the said statements in language approved by the Honourable
Court and on the Radio Gold website with the same prominence as the defamatory
statements.
Apart from the
restraining order, Mr. Ofori-Atta also wants damages of GH¢100million from the
defendants.
Particulars of damage
According to Mr.
Ofori-Atta, he suffered “serious damage to his character and reputation as one
of Africa's most prominent businessmen and an internationally recognised
leading business executive by being portrayed to right-thinking members of
society as a person of moral turpitude who engages in tax evasion, fraud and
gross hypocrisy.”
He said he has “suffered
serious damage to his character and reputation as an honoured and decorated
leader in society by being portrayed to right thinking members of society as a
person of moral turpitude who engages in tax evasion, fraud and gross
hypocrisy.”
He also said he “suffered
serious damage to his reputation as the Co-Founder and shareholder of a leading
investment bank in Ghana and Africa, to wit, Databank, which investment bank
complies with all legal and regulatory requirements, by portraying Databank to
right thinking members of society as an entity that engages in tax evasion.”
Radio Gold’s Offence
According to Mr.
Ofori-Atta, “the defendants did not take any steps or make any attempt to
contact him on the story to ascertain his version or rebuttal, and that the
refusal, failure or neglect to do so was actuated by the Defendants' gross malice
and ill-will towards the plaintiff.”
“The Plaintiff states
that as a natural and probable consequence of publication, the aforesaid
deliberately malicious and defamatory statements were given wide coverage in
the Ghanaian media through Radio Gold
and worldwide over the Internet at http://myradiogoldlive.com.18.”
He said that “the
natural and ordinary and/or innuendo meaning of the words complained of is
that: The Plaintiff is guilty of tax evasion on a massive scale - to the tune
of GHC1.6 million - for which he deserves to be imprisoned.”
Second defendant
He also said he
understood the defendant’s statement to mean that “the Plaintiff is a corrupt
fraudster and appalling hypocrite who has the moral turpitude (or depravity) to
operate a fraudulent overseas foreign exchange slush fund, while simultaneously
claiming to be a member of Occupy Ghana, an anti-corruption movement.”
“The Plaintiff states
that as a result of the aforesaid deliberately false, malicious and defamatory
statements, he has been seriously injured in character, credit and reputation
and has been brought into and exposed to public scandal, odium and contempt, as
follows:
The defendants are
yet to file their responses.
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