Abena Osei-Asare
THE DEPUTY Minister for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has sued the New Crusading Guide, its editor-in-chief, Kwaku Baako Jnr, and a reporter, Frank Amponsah, over a publication she avers is defamatory to her person.
The suit, filed before the registry of the Accra High Court indicates that the newspaper on April 4, 2022, had published an “untrue” story under the banner headline ‘Dubai Embassy Demolishing Spree, Minister And Husband Fingered’.
The newspaper is said to have reported that the Deputy Finance Minister and her husband, Kweku Osei-Asare, were holding the fort for one Christopher Adomako, who is missing in action, as a result of the demolition of a storey building at Roman Ridge which is intended to be used as the Embassy of Dubai.
“It has emerged that because Christopher Adomako cannot be traced, the lawyer, Kweku Osei-Asare and his wife, Hon. Abena Osei-Asare are holding fort for him in securing the said property,” the New Crusading Guide reported.
The suit avers that the publication, which is wholly untrue and characterised the plaintiff as a lawless person and a person not fit to hold public office, was widely published in the media.
It says the Deputy Finance Minister’s reputation has been seriously injured as a result of the publication and has also “lowered her image in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally and in particular has caused her to be regarded with feelings of hatred, contempt, ridicule, opprobrium, dislike and disesteem.”
It concludes that the defendants have failed to retract the story although they have been urged to do so through various means.
The suit is, therefore, seeking damages for defamation, an order directed at the defendants to publish a retraction of the defamatory words and an apology for the same.
It is also seeking an order of injunction restraining the defendant from further publishing or causing to be published the same or similar words defamatory to the plaintiff.