SML Sues Manasseh For Defamation

Manasseh Azure Awuni

 

Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML), has initiated a GH¢ 21 million defamation suit against Manasseh Azure over some allegations made against the company in his book The President Ghana Never Got.

The suit, filed before a High Court in Accra, pays particular attention to Chapter 28 of the book entitled The Mother of All Scandals, and avers that the defendant alleges several non-factual statements that tarnish the reputation of the company and has caused right-thinking members of society to shun the company.

SML argues that the onslaught of backlash from the public which has arisen from Manasseh’s publication of Chapter 28 of his book has adversely impacted its operations by causing it to lose potential contracts from Tanzania, Kenya and Ivory Coast.

The suit also avers that Manasseh has since December 2023 published several defamatory materials about the Plaintiff regarding the Plaintiff’s contract with the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), including tweets and articles.

The Plaintiff avers that in Chapter 28, Manasseh calls the Plaintiff’s contract with the Government of Ghana and the GRA “the biggest scam”, a “shady deal” and “the SML scandal,” and also refers to statements and projections made by the Plaintiff regarding its contract with the government and GRA as “falsehoods” and “a lie”

It further points out that the Defendant in Chapter 28 calls the Plaintiff’s contract with the GoG and GRA “needless” and “redundant.”

“The Plaintiff says that the contents of Chapter 28 of the Defendant’s book and the phrases used by the Defendant to describe the contract impute wrongdoing to the Plaintiff and portrays the Plaintiff as a criminal organisation,” the suit argues.

The statement of claim indicates that SML entered into a contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority on January 1, 2019, to provide transaction audit services and external price verification services within Ghana’s customs operations.

It says scope of SML’s contract was later extended in April and October 2019 to cover revenue assurance in the downstream petroleum sector.

In October 2023, the government, through the Ministry of Finance and the GRA, further expanded the contract to include upstream petroleum and minerals revenue audits under a five-year “risk-reward” model.

The Plaintiff says the GRA’s extension of its audit services to cover operations within the petroleum downstream sector pursuant to 2019 contracts was done as part of the GRA’s efforts to improve revenue mobilisation in the country by eliminating revenue leakages within the downstream petroleum sector at the Bulk Distribution Depots.

“The Plaintiff under the Risk-Reward contract was to bear the cost of the infrastructure and technology required and if there was any increment in revenue, the Plaintiff would then be rewarded by way of compensation paid by GRA from the said increased revenue,” the Plaintiff states.

The writ however, argues that Manasseh’s description of the contract as a “scandal,” “falsehoods” and a “lie,” imply criminal wrongdoing on the part of the company.

The Plaintiff further says that its contract with the GoG and the GRA was on a risk-reward basis, and that the Defendant’s statements in Chapter 28 of his book that the Plaintiff “lied” about its earnings under the contract is without any factual basis.

“The Plaintiff says that the use of these words and expressions by the Defendant in his book misinforms and prejudices right-thinking members of society and portrays the Plaintiff as a dishonest company,” the suit argues.

SML is, therefore, seeking general damages of GH¢1,000,000 for defamation and exemplary damages of GH¢20,000,000 for the Defendant’s malicious reporting.

It is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining Manasseh from publishing any further defamatory material about the company, a retraction of Chapter 28 of the Defendant’s book entitled The Mother of All Scandals, and an apology from the Defendant.

BY Gibril Abdul Razak

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