Ablakwa and Africawatch face a $ 20 million defamation suit | General news

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has launched a $ 20 million defamation suit against Africawatch Magazine and its editor, Steve Mallory, about a publication on the subject. Accusing of inflating the cost of the Oslo Chancery purchased by the government by the government. $ 16 million.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, is also present.

Ms. Botchwey, who is also an Anyaa-Sowutuom MP, issued a writ of summons after obtaining permission from the High Court, presided over by Judge Samuel Asiedu, to issue and serve a summons out of the jurisdiction of Africawatch Magazine. a defamatory publication.

The Minister, through her lawyers led by Garry Nimako Marfo, seeks among other things to obtain "an injunction order directed against the agents, the rights holders and the defendant's lawyers to continue to make new defamatory publications about the complainant ".

It also requests "a court order directing the accused to withdraw the defamatory publication and to make an unqualified excuse of the same importance as the defamatory publication, as well as general and compensatory damages against the defendants for a defamatory publication. amount of $ 20 million. loss of reputation.

She also asks for "a statement that the defendants' publication, as stated in the statement, baderting that the plaintiff's involvement in the property of Oslo is" a shameful plot to steal the state "is defamatory and unfounded.

Declaring that the defendant's publication, as specified in the statement, claims to have inflated the cost of the building by $ 16.5 million is defamatory of the plaintiff and equally unfounded.

Declare that the publication of the accused as stated in the statement states that "unlike Ayorkor Botchwey and his department and his government, Bonde has nothing to gain from lying" is defamatory of the plaintiff and is also unfounded.

Out of jurisdiction service order

On Monday, July 8, 2019, the plaintiff, who was represented by Garry Nimako, sought leave of the court to issue and serve a notice on defendants out of his jurisdiction.

The Commercial Division of the High Court of Accra, presided over by Judge Samuel Asiedu, declared, while granting the claim: "It is hereby ordered that the plaintiff obtain leave to notify the citation and application to the defendant by mail at the following address: 353 West 48 Street, 4th Floor, New York (New York) 10036.

The court also ordered the respondents to appear within 14 days of the date of service of the notice of the writ if they wished to dispute the case.

Context

The magazine Africawatch made this publication on the cover of its June issue with the caption "Ghana Exclusivity: The Inner History of Sacrilege of Oslo, conspiracy against theft, revelation of Ayokor Botchwey's lies" , Nana Akufo-Addo's defense falls flat. " to the plaintiff, intends to tarnish her hard-earned reputation, the reason she decided to sue the magazine Africawatch and its publisher for defamation.

In December 2018, it was reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had inflated the price of a building that he would have bought in Oslo, Norway, to use as a Ghanaian embbady.

According to Okudzeto Ablakwa, a senior official in Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, the property was purchased for $ 12.1 million instead of $ 3.5 million.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs later indicated that the property had not yet been purchased and discussions were still ongoing after the minority accused it of inflating the price of the property.

However, in June 2019, Africawatch posted an article on the cover of this case, accusing the minister of conspiring to steal. The minister then sued the magazine Africanwatch and its editor, who lives in the United States, for defamation.

Declaration
Part of the statement stated: "The accused's badertion that I inflated the cost of the property without any correlative evidence to that effect amounts to an imputation of the crime and is defamatory of my character" .

"The defamatory statement that I conspired to steal from the state while a full reading of the article does not show how I conspired to steal the state is an imputation of the crime and that he is defamatory ".

The plaintiff, who was represented by Garry Nimako, sought leave from the court to issue and serve a notice to defendants outside the jurisdiction of the court, which was granted by the court.

Defendants should file their defense within 14 days.