Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko
Private legal practitioner and Founder and media owner, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has instituted another legal action for libel against a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) amidst claims that he owns a share in the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal.
The suit filed against Sabah Zita Benson, a former Minister of Information and Tourism in the late Prof. Atta Mills administration comes at the back of some comments she made in a self-recorded video on social media platform Facebook.
The latest suit is the second within the space of two weeks after Mr. Otchere-Darko had instituted a similar one against Richard Acheampong, NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Bia East for claiming that he is a beneficiary of the Agyapa Royalties deal which has been formed by the government to handle royalties from the country’s gold mines.
Ms Zita Benson now domicile in the United States in her Facebook video claimed that Gabby was part of what she described as ‘family and friend’ who had arrogated the mineral resources of the country to themselves through the Agyapa Royal deal.
She claimed in the video that she was laying the fact bare for Ghanaians to decipher the true intent behind the Agyapa Royalties deal as the media had failed to criticise it.
She also alleged that Gabby together with others also sold Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to themselves under Power Distribution Services (PDS) and for months or years they were taking money from ECG.
“It is this same group of people that sold Electricity Company of Ghana to themselves under PDS and they did not pay a penny that is why the PDS agreement had to be abrogated… and for months or years they were taking money from ECG. So far nobody has been held responsible. It is the same thing that we are seeing with Agyapa. Once again we see family and friends at play. The same group of people – the same Osafo Maafo, Gabby, Ken Ofori-Atta…” Zita alleged in the video.
She also claimed that “The same suspects, the usual suspects that we saw in PDS, that we have been seeing in these smelly stinky fraudulent deals, sales of national assets and state companies that we have been seeing, the same group are behind Agyapa.”
These word Gabby’s suit avers are understood to mean he is engaging in criminal capture and dissipation of public funds by being the actual owner of the Agyapa Royalties.
According to the suit filed by his lawyer, Kissi Agyabeng, the words mean the plaintiff is corrupt and he engages in “reprehensible clandestine dealings to arrogate or convert public funds arising from equity interests in mining companies and royalties from mining companies and the ownership of public company to himself.”
Again, the suit avers that the words of Zita mean that Gabby is a member of a nepotistic family and he, in cahoots with other members of his family engage in inordinate and dishonest monetary gain through the seizure and plundering of public funds, assets and public companies.
“The plaintiff states that the words complained of are absolutely false, product of the defendant’s imagination and were mischievously designed by the defendant to disparage him, stain his reputation and his legal practice, create disaffection for him, and to bring him into abhorrence in the eyes of right thinking members of the republic and the global community.”
He is therefore, seeking general damages, aggravated damages arising from libel published by Zita as well as costs including his lawyer’s fees.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak