Court slaps GH¢500,000 on Agona East NPP member for defamatory comments

The Agona Swedru High Court has slapped general a damage of GH¢500,000 against Kwame Egyire Annan, a leading member the New Patriotic Party in the Agona East Constituency, for defamatory remarks against Prof Kwesi Yankah, the NPP parliamentary candidate for the constituency in the 2020 general elections.

The court further awarded a cost of GH¢5,000 against the defendant in favour of the plaintiff.

The presiding judge, Justice Felix Datsumor declared that the comments made against the plaintiff were false and restrained the defendant from making any further comments against the plaintiff.

He, therefore, ordered the defendant to retract the comments made against Prof Yankah and use the same medium to apologise to him and also urged the plaintiff to accept the apology.

The defendant on December 13, 2024, was reported to have made the defamatory remarks on Movement Television (TV) morning show hosted by one Kweku Dawurow that Prof Yankah did not use funds, logistics and other resources given to him to campaign as the 2020 NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Agona East.

Annan further alleged that Prof Yankah refused to release the funds and the items meant for the campaign to the party and that contributed to the defeat of the party in Agona East.

Speaking to the media after court ruling, Justice Abudulai, counsel for the plaintiff, thanked the court for ruling in favour of Prof Yankah but however added that they had wanted GH¢1 million in damages.

He used the occasion to advise politicians to be careful and measured in their utterances for democracy to thrive in the nation.