Assin Central Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong is no stranger to defamation suits having been dragged to Ghanaian courts twice for the particular charge.
The first being a case brought against him by Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Abdul Malik Kweku Baako then later by Baako's protege, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Agyapong himself also went to court with a defamation suit against a political commentator based in the United States, Kevin Taylor.
The most recent of those cases is that of his fight with investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas whose 25 million cedis defamation suit against Agyapong was dismissed last week.
GhanaWeb looks at brief facts from each of the three cases:
Kweku Baako defeats Ken Agyapong
In June 2020, an Accra High court has ruled in favour of Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako in his case against Kennedy Agyapong.
The court gave the lawmaker a 30-day ultimatum to retract and apologise three times on the platforms he used to defame Kwaku Baako.
The legislator also got a damage set at GH¢100,000 with cost of GH¢30,000.
Kweku Baako in 2018 sued Assin Central MP over defamatory comments on different occasions at an Accra-based radio station.
The lawmaker is quoted to have said “You [referring to the plaintiff], Anas and your lawyer, yeah, they are real evil guys [referring to the plaintiff and Anas] … Kweku Baako will collapse NPP’s government should he allow it. Have you seen what he started with Charlotte Osei…?”
Agyapong loses against Kevin Taylor
A defamation suit by Agyapong against US-based journalist, Kevin Taylor and his media company, Loud silence, was dismissed last year by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
According to the court, Kennedy Agyapong failed to truly prove that the comments made by Mr Taylor were defamatory hence the case was thrown out, citinewsroom.com reports.
Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong had filed a fifteen paged suit against Kevin Taylor and Loud Silence Media over what he described as a series of “false and defamatory statements in a series of videos and an email correspondence published by Defendants via Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms about Plaintiff."
His suit comes after the defendant, Kevin Taylor, and his organization (Loud Silence) had on several occasions referred to the plaintiff as a “murderer, drug dealer, and drug addict, thief, and green card fraudster”.
Despite evidence put before the court, the presiding judge who sat on the case, Honourable Liam O’Grady in his ruling suggested that Mr. Agyapong had no basis for demanding US$9.5 million in damages awarded to him.
Anas vs. Ken Agyapong defamation case
An Accra High Court on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, struck out a defamation suit brought by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas against Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
The plaintiff, filed the case in 2018, seeking among other reliefs monetary damages to the tune of GH¢25 million.
However, the court presided by Justice Eric Baah despite finding various claims made by the defendant against the plaintiff as potentially defamatory, ruled that the comments were factual and fair.
The court subsequently dismissed the suit and awarded the defendant a sum of 50,000 Ghana cedis to cover his legal costs.
The MP has subsequently referred to the ruling as a victory for straight talk over investigative terrorism.
The journalist also expressed grave misgivings about the ruling describing it in part as a travesty of justice. He, has also confirmed that his legal team will file an appeal, stressing that his fight against corruption will continue unabated.
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