Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Wednesday,
August 26, 2015
Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah, National Treasurer of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), has filed a suit at an Accra Fast Track High Court against the editor
of al-Hajj newspaper, Alhaji Bature
Iddrisu, for libel.
The treasurer is claiming GH¢1 million as aggravated damages from
Alhaji Bature as well as Harzet Company Limited, publishers of the al-Hajj newspaper for ‘loss of
reputation.’
According to the plaintiff, who has Gary Nimako Marfo of Safo &
Marfo @ Law as his counsel, the defendants had accused him in a publication
that he operated a secret bank account belonging to the NPP but could not
account for the proceeds.
Plaintiff’s Reliefs
Mr. Abankwah-Yeboah is seeking a declaration that the banner
headline of Thursday, August 13, 2015 in the al-Hajj - “Police probe: NPP Treasurer confesses - GH¢6 million in
‘secret account,” is defamatory.
He wants a further declaration that “the publication by the
defendants that the plaintiff cannot properly account for nearly GH¢1 million
belonging to the NPP is defamatory” and was “without any justification or
probable cause.”
“A declaration that the entire publication of the defendants about
the plaintiff is libelous as same was published without any lawful, reasonable or
probable cause,” the plaintiff sought.
He is also seeking an injunction to restrain the defendants from
further publishing defamatory stories about him and an order directed at the
defendants to retract and apologize for the publication in the same prominence
as the original story.
Statement Of
Claim
According to Mr. Abankwah-Yeboah, the defendants had said in the
publication that nearly GH¢1 million out of the GH¢6 million could not be
properly accounted for and that some of the party’s finance committee members
were pushing for the case to be reported to the CID since it was a criminal
offence.
Particulars Of
Defamation
The plaintiff is averring that he “understands the banner headline
to mean that he is somebody who is criminally minded and has secretly kept
funds meant for the NPP without the knowledge of the executives of the party.
“The plaintiff understands the assertion that GH¢1 million cannot be
properly accounted for by him to mean that he has embezzled party funds thereby
warranting investigations to be conducted by the police as it’s being alleged
by the said publication.”
False Publication
The plaintiff is insisting that the entire publication is ‘false’
and that he is not under any police investigation/probe for embezzling funds
meant for the NPP, adding that the party has no secret account and as the
National Treasurer, he is the custodian of the party’s funds and is obliged
under the constitution of the party, to account for his stewardship to the
stakeholders of the party at the end of his tenure of office.
He further said he had never been arrested or invited by the police
to assist in any investigation in respect of any secret account or alleged
embezzled GH¢1 million funds belonging to the NPP.
No comments:
Post a Comment