A-Plus
Former Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Alberta Afia Akoto, has sued Hiplife artiste Kwame Asare Obeng, known in showbiz as Kwame A-Plus, for defamation and is seeking damages of GH¢5 million.
The plaintiff, who is currently a member of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team, in a writ filed before a High Court in Accra accuses A-Plus of making unsubstantiated allegations about her on his Facebook page.
The statement of claims avers that the defendant on July 12, 2024 made claims which suggests she has been sending her nude pictures to people, and that she does not take care of her private parts.
The writ also avers that A-Plus’ post on Facebook suggests that she does not exercise discretion in her action and engages in sexual activities anywhere, and that plaintiff “had so many sexual partners that plaintiff has lost count of the number of men she has slept with.”
The plaintiff, who appeared to be having difficulties in serving the writ on A-Plus, has secured a court order for substituted service by which she is allowed to post a copy on the notice board of the court.
A copy of the writ is also to be sent to A-Plus via his number on WhatsApp, a copy sent to him on Facebook and another to his email address, all for a period of 14 days.
Madam Afia Akoto, a former Deputy Director of Communication for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in her writ avers that the claims made by A-Plus and carried by various online media platforms are pure fabrications and contain no iota of truth.
She avers that the defendant intentionally and maliciously made the defamatory statements “with the sole intent to disparage plaintiff, lower her integrity and reputation before right thinking members of the society, and to cause disaffection towards plaintiff from the general Ghanaian populace.”
The suit also avers that defendant’s statements have caused emotional and psychological trauma to plaintiff’s children who are in the university, and has affected their studies adversely.
“Defendant made the statements to score cheap political points, to enhance his social media following and to attract more support for his parliamentary candidature,” the suit points out.
It further avers that the statements are not only defamatory of plaintiff but are also dehumanising to plaintiff as a woman.
“The unprintable language used by defendant in his statement is unbecoming of a person aspiring to the high office of a Member of Parliament in Ghana,” it stated.
It added that a large number of defendant’s social media followers are teenagers and young persons who need good role models in society, and that defendant’s conduct must be deprecated to serve as an example of how not to behave.
Alberta Afia Akoto is therefore seeking an order that the statements made by A-Plus against her are defamatory and damages of GH¢5 million.
She is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining defendant from further publishing or causing to be published the said or similar words defamatory of her.
Again, she wants an order directed at defendant to retract the foul statements about her contained in the Facebook publications of July 12, 2024, together with an apology to plaintiff, in the medium and with the same prominence.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak