Kofi Adams
The National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has hauled Network Broadcasting Limited, operators of Accra-based Radio Gold, before an Accra High Court for defamation.
The plaintiff, a former Aide of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, aside Radio Gold, has also sued four members of his party for what he describes as their defamatory comments against him over the party’s 2016 electoral defeat by calling him a thief.
The four are Kodzo Keglo Hamenya, Okaikoi North Constituency Secretary of the NDC; Emmanuel Ashaley Tetteh, Communications Officer, Klottey Korle Constituency; Stephen Afutu Neequaye, Communications Officer, Okaikoi Central Constituency and James Deku, aka Agbee.
According to Mr. Adams, who was the campaign coordinator for former President John Mahama’s re-election in the run-up to Election 2016, the four defamed him when they appeared on the Latebiokorshie-located radio station saying, “We have never seen such a useless national organizer/campaign coordinator…[and that all] Kofi Adams knows is to steal money and cars and disrespect everybody.”
Sampson Lardi Ayenini, lawyer for Mr. Adams, in a statement of claim among other things, opined that the defendants and their said defamatory statements meant and were natural and ordinarily understood by right-thinking members of society to mean that the plaintiff is useless and a criminal who has no regard for everyone.
As a result, Mr. Adams is demanding compensatory damages to the tune of GH¢600,000 each for injury to his character and integrity.
Apart from cost including legal fees, the plaintiff is asking the court for “an order for an unconditional retraction and an unqualified apology for the said defamatory statement/broadcast/publication, doing so separately and in the Daily Graphic newspaper, and for same to be given equal prominence as the complained statement/broadcast/publication within 14 days from the day of judgment.”
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
