Tsatsu Tsikata sues Kofi Akpaloo for defamation

A private legal practitioner and former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata, has sued Kofi Akpaloo, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), at the High Court in Accra for defamation.

He joined Excellence In Broadcasting (EIB) Network, the owner of GHOne Television, to the suit as the second defendant for allowing Mr Akpaloo to use its network to make false claims against him (plaintiff).

In his statement of claim, the plaintiff said that Mr Akpaloo, the first defendant, in an interview on GHOne on November 19, 2024, as part of his presidential campaign, had claimed that the reason Mr Tsikata said in an interview that things were better in the country under President Mahama than currently was because “he was getting contracts under Mahama” and “he was getting the best deals.”

The plaintiff indicated that Mr Akpaloo further stated and or implied that “those who were getting the goodies” would be the ones saying what Mr Tsikata had said about President Mahama.

It is the plaintiff’s case that the said interview was broadcast on GHOne and was accessible on the social media handles of GHOne TV and, thereby, available globally on the World Wide Web (internet).

Moreover, he said the words of the first defendant about him on the television station of the second defendant were false and lower his esteem in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society.

The plaintiff contends that the natural and ordinary meaning of the statements of the first defendant  were understood to mean that Mr Tsikata was only  making the assessment he made about President Mahama because “he was getting contracts  under Mahama,” “he was getting the best deals” and he was among “those who were getting the goodies” under President Mahama. 

Again, the plaintiff noted that the statement made by the Mr Akpaloo portrays him as a person who obtained favours under President Mahama and whose opinion therefore, cannot be trusted.

Mr Tsikata stated that the words of Mr Akpaloo, the second defendant were egregious falsehoods against him which impact negatively his hard won reputation.

The plaintiff asked the court for a number of reliefs including damages for libel, aggravated damages against the first defendant, costs, and punitive costs against the first defendant.

He asked the court for an order of mandatory injunction requiring the defendants to cause to be published in a similar manner in which the defamatory statements were published, an apology to the plaintiff and a withdrawal and retraction of the words of the first defendant about the plaintiff.

The plaintiff further urged the court for an order of mandatory injunction requiring the second defendant to affix onto the publication of the interview of the first defendant on its website and other social media handles, withdrawal and retraction of the false statements of the first defendant.

BY MALIK SULLEMANA

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