Security expert sues Daily Post for defamation
A security expert, Mr Adegbule Olatunde Durojaiye, also known as Kwame Dankwa, has filed a defamation suit against the Daily Post newspaper for publishing stories which claim he is training vigilantes at the National Security Training Camp, a military installation at Asutuare.
According to the plaintiff, the said publication was“ false, malicious and has injured his image and brought his hard-won reputation into hatred, ridicule, odium, discredit, contempt, opprobrium and reproach.”
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Joined as a defendant to the writ filed at the Accra High Court on Friday, November 15, is Mangortey Owula, a branch secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Shai Osudoku District, who the plaintiff says made the said defamatory statements which were published in the Daily Post.
Other defendants mentioned on the writ are Giraffe Publications, the publisher of the Daily Post , Michael Dokosi, the editor of the Daily Post and Ghananews online, an online portal which also published the said defamatory comments.
Reliefs
Mr Durojaiye is using the legal action to seek a declaration from the court that the said publications by the defendants are defamatory.
He is also seeking general damages of GH¢1million against the defendants for the said publications.
Another relief is an order from the court directed at the defendants to apologise and retract the said defamatory publications in the same manner and prominence they gave to the publication.
The plaintiff further wants an order of injunction restraining the defendants, their agents or assigns from ever publishing defamatory statements about him.\
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Particulars of defamation
Per the plaintiff’s statement of claim, Owula had been making the false and misleading statements about him from October, this year.
Owula, he said, made a statement that he (Durojaiye) had a permanent office at the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and was harassing and intimidating officers and men of the GAF.
The statement of claim averred that Owula said the plaintiff was training vigilantes at the National Security Training Camp, has a car which belonged to the GAF and also travelled abroad frequently at the expense of the GAF.
No basis
Mr Durojaiye has debunked the allegations, arguing they were untrue and without any facts to back them.
The plaintiff further averred that Owula, apart from making misleading statements about him, also made his name, his telephone number, mother’s name and his vehicle registration number public.
“This has exposed his (plaintiff) life, as well as the life of his mother and fiancée to danger by giving to the whole world his phone number, car number, his mother’s name and his hometown, “ the statement of claim averred.
Also, it is the contention of the plaintiff that vigilantism was a crime and by claiming that he was training vigilantes, the defendants meant he was “engaged in the criminal enterprises of training vigilantes and is training people for criminal activities.”