Gabby Otchere-Darko Sues NDC MP For Defamation

Leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere Darko has sued Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bia East Constituency, Richard Acheampong.

This was according to an interview by Mr. Acheampong allegedly have suggested that Mr. Otchere-Darko, who is a shareholder of Asaase Radio, has a hand in the establishment of the new SPV due to his relationship with the governing party.

This follows allegations the National Democratic Congress MP made against Gabby Otchere-Darko in the aftermath of the parliamentary approval of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Agyapa Royalties Limited, established by the Minerals Income Investment Fund to help the government monetize the country’s gold royalties on the London Stock Exchange.

Mr. Otchere-Darko, in his writ, interpreted the NDC MP’s remarks as follows:

“… and we asked; why is it that our natural resources, our share of the rights that generations yet unborn must come to meet and use for legacies; why are we squandering all now? And that we do not understand it. When you do some background checks about Agyapa [meaning thereby Agyapa Royalties Limited, which is wholly owned by the Minerals Income Investment Fund, which is also wholly owned by the Government of the Republic of Ghana] it used to be called Asaase Ventures and we know that Akufo-Addo’s [meaning thereby the President of the Republic] nephew Gabby Otchere-Darko [meaning thereby the plaintiff] has established an FM station called Asaase FM. So when you look at it carefully, the deal has got something to do with the President and his family. So we were asking, how come we didn’t get any company but going for only that company.”

Initial reports suggested that the company was renamed from Asaase Royalties Limited to Agyapa Royalties Limited after it was discovered that there were over 20 firms on the Register of Companies in Ghana bearing the name “Asaase” in several variants, especially in the mining sector.

According to Gabby’s writ, the MP also sought to also create the impressions that he “is a detestable, distasteful and nepotistic person who engages in publicly opprobrious practices by appropriating state-owned assets and funds by employing his blood ties with the President of the Republic.”

He further argued that the words uttered by Richard Acheampong are “absolutely false, products of the defendant’s imagination and were mischievously designed by the defendant to disparage him, stain his reputation, create disaffection for him, and to bring him into abhorrence in the eyes of right-thinking members of the Republic and the global community.”

The writ further explained that Mr. Otchere-Darko’s reputation, particularly as a lawyer, has been egregiously damaged and he has suffered debilitating distress and embarrassment following the utterances.

Gabby Otchere-Darko is thus seeking from the court “general damages for libel contained in the defendant’s publication of the plaintiff indorsed on the writ of summons by way of an attachment and set out in paragraph 7 above.”

“Aggravated damages arising from libel published by the defendant of the plaintiff indorsed on the writ of summons by way of an attachment and set out in paragraph 7 above” and “costs, including lawyers’ fees.”

Source: GhanaFeed.com