Sports News of Friday, 21 July 2017
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2017-07-21
Nyantakyi is seeking damages from MGL and its journalists
Corporate Legal Concepts (CPL), lawyers representing the Multimedia Group Limited and two of its journalists in a $2m libel suit filed by the GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi are pleading with him to accept GH? 40,000 as compensation.
Nyantakyi is seeking damages from MGL and its journalists Patrick Osei Agyemang (alias Songo) and Kofi Asare Brako (alias Abatay, who now works with Atinka FM) for allegedly calling him “the head of a Mafia”.
Nyantakyi, a vice President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), claims Asempa FM – a local-language FM station owned by MGL – tarnished his image in a series of broadcasts involving two of their journalists.
However, a leaked letter addressed to Nyantakyi’s lawyers, [email protected] by Corporate Legal Concepts pleads with Nyantakyi to “in the spirit of reconcillation” accept the amount of GHC 40,000 as compensation for what has transpired.
Nyantakyi not interested in compensation
“I am not interested in money or punishment but to set the record straight,” Nyantakyi, a Fifa Council member, told BBC Sport.
Thadeus Sory, Nyantakyi’s lawyer, told BBC Sport that his client was described as ‘heading a mafia’ and stealing money meant for the GFA.
“They’ve called me a ‘thief’, ‘armed robber’ and a ‘corrupt’ man,” added Nyantakyi.
“I have sued them. I want to uphold standards in journalism in Ghana which have been thrown to the dogs.”
“The allegations are defamatory. To call him the head of a mafia is to impute criminality,” said Thadeus Sory, Nyantakyi’s lawyer.
The GFA president’s conduct has been under scrutiny since a government-instituted panel of enquiry recommended last year that he refund $412,000 budgeted for the 2014 World Cup, “which he has failed to account for.”
Nyantakyi, who has led Ghanaian football since 2005, is challenging the enquiry’s verdict in court.
Agyeman, one of the two journalists being sued, refused to be drawn on the libel suit when contacted by BBC Sport.
“My lawyers have advised me not to speak,” he replied.
“We will show up in court on Monday, because we have been summoned to do so,” Ekyi Quarm, MBL’s Chief Executive Officer, told BBC Sport.
