Former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Joseph Yammin has begun legal proceedings against Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for defamatory statements made on Net 2 TV against him.
The leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is demanding GH¢95 million in damages and an order directing the MP to retract the statements on the same channel three times a day for a year.
The suit was filed at the Accra High Court on Wednesday, May 27 following Mr Agyapong’s pronouncements on his television station some time back.
According to the writ, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP had gone on Net 2 TV, a subsidiary of Ken City Media Limited, which has also been joined in the suit as the 2nd defendant, accusing Mr Yammin of hatching a plot together with some NDC officers to kill diplomats and expatriates in order to make the Akufo-Addo-led government unpopular as elections approach.
Describing himself as a promising politician who has the potential of becoming president of Ghana, the former Deputy Ashanti Region Minister said the pronouncements by Mr Agyapong portrays him as “wicked, criminal murderer etc, which said words in their true and natural sense has exposed the plaintiff to public ridicule hatred and contempt in the eyes of the right thinking citizens of Ghana and numerous expatriates and diplomats in Ghana”.
Among other claims, Mr Yammin wants the court to restrain Mr Agyapong and his media company from “publishing further falsehood against the plaintiff”.
He described Mr Agyapong’s comments as “vexatious” and a “total fabrication”.
Mr Yammin revealed in the writ that after the interview on Net 2 TV, an expatriate met him and threatened to kill him and his entire family “if any expatriate dies of murder in Kumasi or anywhere”.
He indicated that, above all, “the said publication has caused him serious emotional stress”.
Mr Agyapong and Ken City Media Limited have eight days to respond to the writ by way of appearance in court, failure of which judgement may be given in their absence.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana