Daniel Owusu Koranteng, also known as Akwasi Amakye, the suspect in the Ahmed Hussein-Suale case, has sued the Multimedia Group for defamation.
He is demanding damages to the tune of 500 million cedis, an apology, as well as a retraction of certain statements published on Multimedia platforms about his arrest.
In a writ dated March 27, 2025 and filed at the Accra High Court, General Jurisdiction Division, the plaintiff via his lawyers Gurah Sampson @ Law said publications by the media house to the effect that his client among others had disguised himself and fled the country in 2019 and that he had sneaked into Ghana only a week before he was arrested were defamatory.
The suit comes a week after the lawyers had issued a statement (March 20) to expressly condemn what they said was misreporting about the arrest of their client.
They demanded an apology from Multimedia in the said statement, citing among others a relationship between their client and the media house in respect of a public health investigation he was collaborating with them on.
They decried the fact that the media had repeatedly put out unproven claims about the plaintiff even before the police arraigned him before the court.
Below are the full reliefs being sought against Multimedia:
a. An order directing the Defendant to retract the aforementioned statements and to issue and publish an unqualified apology on myjoyonline.com with the same prominence as the original defamatory article.
b. An order of interlocutory injunction restraining the Defendant and each of them, whether by themselves, their servants or agents or otherwise, from further publishing said complained or similar words defamatory of the Plaintiff pending the final determination of this instant suit.
c. An order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant and each of them, whether by themselves, their servants or agents or otherwise, from further publishing said complaint or similar words defamatory of the Plaintiff.
d. An Order directed at all Defendants to make an unqualified apology to Plaintiff, Defendants directed to publish same on their website and in the Daily Graphic on five (consecutive occasions.
e. General damages of Five Hundred Million Ghana Cedis (GHS500,000,000.00) against the Defendant for the pain, suffering, and reputational damage caused by the defamatory publication.
f. Punitive damages of Two Hundred Thousand Million Ghana Cedis (GHS20,000,000.00) against the Defendant to serve as a deterrent against reckless and malicious defamation by the Defendant.
g. Costs, including but not limited to Solicitor’s fees.
Ahmed Suale’s murder occurred on January 16, 2019, near his family’s house in Madina, after he collaborated with the BBC on an investigative story exposing widespread corruption in African football, particularly in Ghana.
Koranteng was arrested and has been provisionally charged with murder for allegedly selling images of the deceased to a yet-to-be-named politician. He was recently remanded and is to reappear on April 1.
Before adjourning the matter to April 1, 2025, the court, presided over by Suzzy Nyakotey, asked the prosecution whether the sale of photographs alone could provide sufficient grounds to charge someone with murder.
The prosecutor said investigations were still ongoing.
AM/KA
Meanwhile, watch how the former NSS director general was picked up by the NIB