Afenyo-Markin must clear his name over extortion allegation – Kwame Anthony

A Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Julius Kwame Anthony, has challenged Minority Leader Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin to correct the alleged defects in his GH¢15 million defamation suit against GoldBod Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi and refile the case.

The GH¢15 million suit arose from comments made by Mr Gyamfi during JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on August 22, in which he described Afenyo-Markin as an extortionist during a discussion about reported losses associated with the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.

Afenyo-Markin subsequently filed the suit against Sammy Gyamfi and Multimedia Group Limited, seeking damages over the remarks, which he considered defamatory.

However, the Accra High Court’s General Jurisdiction 1 Division on Wednesday, October 14, set aside the writ of summons and statement of claim after finding that the writ did not contain sufficient particulars of the alleged defamatory publication as required under the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47).

Speaking on Accra-based GHOne TV on Thursday, October 15, Kwame Anthony argued that the court’s decision to dismiss the suit raised questions about the Minority Leader’s commitment to pursuing the case to its logical conclusion.

He further stated that Afenyo-Markin should initiate a fresh legal action that complies with the relevant procedural requirements instead of pursuing an appeal.

“The only conclusion is that he did not intend from the outset to go after this case because he knows that he cannot go after this case to a logical conclusion and prove that allegations are false,” Kwame Anthony said.

The NDC communicator questioned why the Effutu MP, whom he described as an experienced lawyer, had allowed the case to proceed with what he considered apparent defects in the court documents.

He claimed that concerns about the writ had been raised on social media and within sections of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) before the court delivered its ruling.

The NDC spokesperson further alleged that the Minority Leader had been alerted to the defects but failed to take steps to address them.

“Honourable, kindly file a fresh action and stop this whole thing about appeal, appeal, which you know will not go anywhere. File a fresh action. Prove that Sammy Gyamfi lied. Prove it to all of us. It’s as simple as that,” he urged.