The Director of Political Affairs to the Chief of Staff, Frank Asiedu Bekoe popularly known as Protozoa has sued Multimedia group and one of its reporters, Kwetey Nettey for defamation over allegations leveled against him in a recent documentary on Joy FM.
The documentary aired on Joy News programme, A.M Show on January 15, 2020 alleged that Protozoa who was then a member of the Confiscated Assets Committee allocated and auctioned seized vehicles to politically connected cronies of the government without the beneficiaries paying the required assessed.
Mr. Bekoe in a writ filed before and Accra High Court avers that he has had a positive image as a staff at the Office of the President until the publication of the defamatory documentary about him in a manner that has caused him public disaffection and impugned his reputation, dignity and ridiculed him in the eye of the right thinking members of society.
Documentary
Joy News on January 15, 2020 aired a documentary in which they indicated that “JoyNews investigations have uncovered how the country lost thousands of cedis after confiscated cars were auctioned cheaply by politically connected individuals”, a story on myjoyonline about the documentary indicated.
“These vehicles are part of 151 confiscated cars that the Director of Political Affairs at the Chief of Staff Office, Frank Asiedu Bekoe, wrote to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to be allocated to selected beneficiaries”, it added.
The documentary further alleged that Mr. Bekoe, when contacted by the producer of the documentary declined to comment on the matter.
Letter
Mr. Bekoe in the aftermath of the documentary through his lawyer wrote to Multimedia asking them to retract and apologize for an allegation leveled against him.
In the said letter, he indicated that when he was contacted by a journalist from Multimedia on the subject he requested the reporter to put his questions into writing for same to be addressed but it was not done.
“Thus it was inaccurate to state in your documentary that our client declined to comment on the issue.”
The letter further states that Protozoa as a member of the Confiscated Assets Committee had no input in the determination of prices or assessable duties on the confiscated vehicles.
Writ
Mr. Bekoe has gone ahead to file a writ against Multimedia which could mean that they failed to meet the demands of the plaintiff.
In his statement of claim, Mr. Bekoe avers that the documentary which was published by Multimedia on various traditional and social media platforms including Youtube contains factual inaccuracies and was clearly circulated to malign and injure his reputation.
The plaintiff also avers in the particulars of defamation that “it is clear that the defendants (Multimendia and the Kwetey Nettey) sough to embark on a one sided piece of work that was carefully calculated, designed, crafted to malign and destroy the reputation of plaintiff in the eyes right thinking members of society.”
Relief
Mr. Bekoe is, therefore, seeking a declaration that the documentary is defamatory of him and it was made without any basis.
He is seeking an order directed at the defendants, agents, assigns, privies from continuing to air the defamatory documentary as well as they retracting it and rendering an unqualified apology in the same manner on Joynews and in the Daily Graphic
He is also seeking general damages, compensatory damages of GH¢10 million for loss of reputation as well as cost including legal fees.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak