Ofori-Atta defamation suit: Court awards GHC5,000 costs against Captain Smart for delay in filing defence
Lawyers for Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart) filed their defence on 27 July 2023. It was on 2 June that the action was launched
An Accra High Court has awarded costs of GHC5,000 against Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart), the host and presenter of Maakye on Onua TV and Onua FM, for his failure to file a defence within time in the defamation suit instituted against him by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Lawyers for Ofori-Atta appeared in court on Thursday 27 July 2023 to move their motion for judgment in default of defence.
However, they were informed by the court that lawyers for the defendant (Captain Smart) had, as at 8.54am on 27 July, filed their statement of defence.
To this end, Ofori-Atta’s lawyers withdrew their motion for judgment in default of defence and asked for costs. The court awarded costs of GHC5,000 against the defendant and ruled that the GHC10 million defamation suit should take its normal course.
In his statement of defence, Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart) denies the accusation of defamation levelled against him by the Finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. He further states that Mr Ofori-Atta is not entitled to the reliefs he is seeking from the court.
Click on the link below to read the statement of defence filed by Captain Smart
Background
On 2 June 2023, Ofori-Atta filed a GHC10 million defamation lawsuit against Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart), the host and presenter of Maakye with Captain Smart on Onua TV and Onua FM, for defamatory claims he made against him connected with the recently approved $3 billion International Monetary Fund extended credit facility, secured by Ghana for a period of three years.
Ken Ofori-Atta, on 5 June 2023, sued Media General Ghana Ltd, operator of Onua TV and Onua FM, in addition to Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart).
In his amended statement of case, Ofori-Atta states that Media General Ghana Ltd (the second defendant), by its actions and inactions, looked on, permitted and/or encouraged the first defendant, Blessed Godsbrain Smart (aka Captain Smart), by the use of its platform and resources, to defame him (Ken Ofori-Atta), the plaintiff, unjustifiably.
In the 2 June writ, filed at the high court in Accra by Bright Okyere Adjekum, the lawyer for Ken Ofori-Atta, Ofori-Atta’s lawyers state that, on 22 May 2023, in the course of the said Maakye with Captain Smart programme, the defendant, Blessed Godsbrain Smart, broadcast and published on Onua TV and Onua FM and via the internet the following words defamatory of the plaintiff: “Are you aware that Ken Ofori Atta has taken his 10% of the IMF money? Every loan we take, he takes 10%.”
“The above statements are not only palpably false [and] absolutely fabricated, but were also deliberately calculated to disparage the plaintiff. Those words are malicious and were clearly further intended to convey and would be understood to convey meanings that diminish the plaintiff in the minds of right-thinking members of society,” the statement of case filed by Ofori-Atta’s lawyer read.
“The said words, set out in their natural and ordinary meaning, meant and were understood to mean, inter alia, that the plaintiff is corrupt, that the plaintiff has diverted public funds and that the plaintiff has abused his office.
“By reason of the foregoing, plaintiff has been greatly injured in his credit, character and reputation, and has been brought into public scandal, ridicule, distress and embarrassment and has thereby suffered damage,” the statement of case further read.
Ofori-Atta’s lawyer also said that by a letter dated 29 May 2023, they wrote to Blessed Godsbrain Smart (also known as Captain Smart) demanding an apology and retraction of the defamatory statements, but the defendant failed as well as refused to do so.
Reliefs sought
The plaintiff is praying the court for five reliefs. First, Ken Ofori-Atta is praying for “a declaration that the words uttered by the defendant, ‘Are you aware that Ken Ofori Atta has taken his 10% of the IMF money? Every loan we take he [Ken Ofori-Atta] takes 10%’ are defamatory of the plaintiff” (Ofori-Atta).
Second, “recovery of the sum of ten million Ghana cedis (GHC10,000,000) as general damages, including aggravated and/or exemplary damages for defamation, for the libel uttered by defendant”.
Third, Ofori-Atta is demanding “an apology for and retraction of the words complained of and particularised” and, fourth, he requests a “perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, whether by himself, his servants, agents or assigns, from repeating similar or other defamatory words against the plaintiff”.
Ofori-Atta’s last prayer is for the court to award costs against Captain Smart.
IMF support
On 1 July 2022 the government made known to Ghanaians its decision to engage the IMF for support to mitigate the devastating impact on Ghana’s economy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
From the date of the decision to go to the IMF, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been at the forefront of Ghana’s negotiations with the Fund.
The Ofori-Atta-led negotiating team secured a staff-level agreement with the IMF on 12 December 2022 and obtained board-level approval for the terms of the agreement on 17 May 2023.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
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