Anyidoho threatens Manasseh after dragging Captain Smart to court for GH¢5 million in damages

Former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Koku Anyidoho, has threatened to sue investigative journalist Manasseh Azure over what he termed defamatory content written about him in the book “The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection and Rebound”.
According to Koku Anyidoho, Manasseh claimed that he was more powerful than the then Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, during Koku’s tenure as the Head of Communications and Presidential Spokesperson under the late former President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills—a claim he has vehemently denied.
In a series of social media posts on March 25, 2025, he stated, “Manasseh Azure should be ready for my next suit because of what he wrote about me in his book.
“Manasseh Azure interviewed me for a book he said he was writing. He asked me questions, and I answered him. So, it is disingenuous of him to write that I was more powerful than Vice President Mahama. I was never more powerful than the Vice President. I must salvage my reputation.
“I was never more powerful than Vice President John Mahama when I worked with President Mills. Manasseh Azure will prove to me in court how he knew me to be more powerful than the Vice President.”
Koku’s legal threat follows a GH¢5 million defamation suit filed by him against the host of Onua Maakye, Blessed Godsbrain Smart, popularly known as Captain Smart.
The suit was filed at the Accra High Court on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
According to the court documents sighted by GhanaWeb on March 25, 2025, the plaintiff stated that Captain Smart made several defamatory comments on his TV show in February 2025, which were later republished on GhanaWeb.
Koku Anyidoho argues that these statements have had a negative impact on his mental health and have tarnished his reputation, both professionally and within religious circles, where he is highly respected.
As a result, he is seeking:
GH¢5 million in damages, including aggravated/exemplary damages for reputational harm
A retraction and apology
The removal of the defamatory content
Manasseh Azure Awuni’s book revealed that Samuel Koku Anyidoho was one person at that time who came across as “powerful” and could even make decisions in the name of the late President Atta-Mills without his consent or knowledge.
Manasseh Azure Awuni’s book cited an example whereby in June 2012, during a Black Stars qualifying match in Kumasi, there was a power outage at the stadium, disrupting the game which was being broadcast live.
Anyidoho quickly went on air on Accra-based Joy FM and said: “President Atta-Mills is upset and everybody who has a role to play in this will have their heads roll.”
He added that the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) would be fired and “all those in the line of fire would be fired”.
The famous “heads must roll” comment from Koku Anyidoho, Manasseh Azure Awuni explained, was not coming from President Atta-Mills because a statement from Fritz Baffour, the then Minister for Information, denied such a directive.
“The President has given no such directive and it is therefore not true that the ECG boss in the Ashanti Region has been fired.”
Koku Anyidoho’s attitude of conveying information not sanctioned by authority, according to the book, gave Vice President Mahama, who had been asked to take charge of affairs at the presidency because of the ill-health of President Atta-Mills, a lot of headaches.
“He was supposed to be in charge because the president was not healthy, but the attitude of some presidential staffers and ministers upset him so badly that he once decided to quit as vice president,” Manasseh Awuni wrote.
“The Chief Director at the Office of the Vice President had returned from lunch break to find the typist in the office seriously typing a letter. Official letters often passed through him (the Chief Director), and he then assigned the typist to work on them.
But this was an exception. When he asked the typist what he was typing, he said the vice president had given him something to type but he would not speak when asked what it was. Perhaps the content was too heavy for his mouth.
The Chief Director then drew closer to him and looked at the screen of the computer. What greeted him from the screen, alarmed him. It was Vice President John Mahama’s resignation letter that was almost ready. He didn’t have the time to read the full letter. He ordered the typist to stop typing and he headed for John Mahama’s office,” page 65 of the book reads.
As fate would have it, President Atta-Mills died on July 24, 2012, and Vice President Mahama took over as President and went ahead to contest and win the 2012 election.
“The Vice President, who did not have much power or influence within the presidency, suddenly had ultimate state power,” Manasseh wrote.