Deputy finance minister sues Kwaku Baako

Deputy Minister for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has named the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, his newspaper, and a journalist as plaintiffs in a defamation suit filed on her behalf.

In the suit filed in an Accra High Court on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, the deputy minister said the newspaper in a publication associated her with the demolition of a building at Roman Ridge in October 2021, and by that sought to portray her as a lawless person who is unfit to hold public office.

Arguing that her reputation has been “seriously injured by these statements” and her image lowered in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society as a result of the publication, the deputy minister is asking for damages for defamation and a retraction and apology from the publishers.

The New Crusading Guide broke the story on October 18, 2021, under the headline ‘Dubai Embassy demolishing spree, Minister and husband fingered,’ according to a Joynews report.

The story is said to have associated former President John Dramani Mahama with the said demolition exercise.

The newspaper is said to have alleged that the Ayawaso West Municipal Assembly, led a demolition of the property because the land belonged to the former president.

The same story was allegedly published again by the newspaper on April 4, 2022.

According to the Joynews report sighted by GhanaWeb, the journalist also named as a defendant in the suit, Frank Amponsah, met with the lawyer for the Deputy finance minister, who is the spouse, as far back as October 2021, and was given full access to all the court documents and facts relating to a case about the land in question

The case is said to have commenced in the year 2002 and a judgment given in 2015.

A High Court in 2015 granted judgement on the disputed land in favour of one Frank Nuamah who is the owner, against three persons named as Adjei Darko, Francis Don Lartey and Alhaji Adams.

Possession of the land was granted to Frank Nuamah in May 2017 when the court went into execution.

Subsequently, an appeal against the High Court’s ruling filed by one of the defendants, Alhaji Adams was thrown out by the High Court in a judgement delivered by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe in November 2020.

The owner of the land who had taken possession since May 2016, went ahead to undertake the demolition exercise without any involvement of the Deputy Finance Minister, as argued by her in her defamation suit.