Retract, apologise or I sue – NLA boss to Multimedia over ‘defamatory’ documentary

Director-General of the Ghana Lottery Authority, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw is through his lawyers demanding an apology from the multimedia Group, over a yet to be aired hotline documentary titled the “Lottery Business.”

In a letter dated September 9, 2020, the lawyers say the media house according to their client has already aired a teaser of the said documentary which contains defamatory statements against him.

The lawyers say the Joynews Channel in the teaser of the documentary stated that they have conducted investigations on some Point of Sales Terminal acquired by the NLA through a firm called NEXGO, which according to the teaser is currently under investigations by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

According to the lawyers of the NLA boss, “our client says that you showed an extract of a letter purporting to have emanated from him requesting the approval of the Public Procurement Authority to purchase the said Point of Sale Terminals via Single-Source Procurement method. Thereafter, your outfit categorially stated that ‘The Price of the POS Terminal has been inflated by more than ten million United States dollars.’

Having denied the claims made in the teaser, the legal representatives of Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw said the media house by way of innuendo portrayed him as “corrupt, dishonourable and a morally reprehensible person with malicious intents against his beloved country.”

“It is our view that you published the said teaser with the sole aim of bringing into disrepute, the hard-earned credentials of our client; to ridicule him in the eyes of right-thinking members of the Ghanaian society and beyond; mischievously reduce his integrity and to cause disaffection for him and his office. Although the documentary is yet to be broadcast, we contend that a publication of the said documentary with these statements and commentary would further aggravate the already established damage to our client’s reputation,” portions of the letter stated.

The lawyers say whiles their client has denied the allegations contained in the teaser, the media house in disregard to the ethics of journalism failed to seek his knowledge and defense on the allegations and ended up making a false statement of price inflation by the NLA boss in the acquisition of the said POS machines.

“Our Client posits further that, your malicious publication has caused considerable damage to his character and has caused him to receive unwarranted calls, suspicions, denigrating comments and unnecessary exposure by other media entities and social commentators,” the lawyers said.

The lawyers, Law Plus Attorneys at law, thus on the instructions of their client have asked the Multimedia Group Limited to within 48 hours meet some demands or risk being sued and being held “legally accountable for carelessly and maliciously making the said defamatory statements.”

The demands include a written unqualified apology which is to be sent personally by the media outfit to Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, as well as “delete portions of the documentary yet to be aired which is defamatory of our client and if the entire documentary borders on the issues for which our client was entitled to be given an opportunity to be heard, same should not be aired, discussed or published in any form on your station or your sister stations.”