Bobie Ansah, Class FM & others sued GH¢10m for defamation by President Akufo-Addo’s brother

Dennislaw News has sighted a suit brought against Radio host of “The Citizen Show” on Accra FM, Kwabena Bobie Ansah, by the Managing Director of Amaadi Cold Stores limited and brother of President Akufo Addo, Edward Akufo-Addo, affectionately called Bompty, by friends. Mr. Edward Akufo-Addo is seeking GH¢10million as damages for defamation. 

The Class Media Group has been listed as 1st Defendant. Other persons sued by Mr. Akufo-Addo are Mensah Thompson, who “touts himself as the Executive Director of a group called Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability” and one Listowell Nana Kusi-Poku, the 4th Defendant who “also touts himself as the Executive Director of a group called Good Governance and Advocacy Group Ghana.”

In the Statement of Claim, Mr. Akufo-Addo avers that Mr. Bobie Ansah (the 2nd Defendant) on 29th May 2021, hosted and aired the program dubbed “The Citizen Show” on Accra FM owned by the Class Media Group (the 1st Defendant). Mensah Thompson and Listowell Kusi-Poku (3rd and 4th Defendants respectively) were featured on the program as panelists.

During the show, however, Mensah Thompson and Listowell Kusi-Poku, aided by Bobie Ansah, maliciously and falsely published statements concerning Mr. Akufo-Addo’s alleged use of the Ghana Presidential Jet, also known as “the Falcon”.

“The following are the verbatim reproduction of the impugned parts of the statements made by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants using 1st Defendants radio station;

Mensah: No, but we cannot continue to allow these people to take us to ransom. That presidential jet he has rejected, he says it cannot fly and all that, while he was traveling with the rented one, his sibling Bompty is the one who now uses the presidential jet.

Bobie: You don’t mean it

Mensah: I am telling you, that’s a fact. Bompty uses the presidential jet, he uses it. The presidential jet is at the disposal of Bompty, your brother. It is the one he travels in wherever he goes. When you have wasted the resources of the country to rent the private jet then your brother would be cruising in this one.

Bobie: Master, are you sure?

Mensah: It is the fact, I am telling you. I am saying this on authority that the Presidential jet, the Falcon, is at the disposal of Bompty.

Listowell: Yes, his younger brother.

Mensah: That’s the ooze his younger brother is cruising in around. We don’t know what he is doing. It is the country fueling it (presidential jet), Commander (referring to Bobie Ansah), all this information, it’s the embassies who give us this information because they track the flight radar of the Falcon. So when the presidential jet having on to hire a private jet, the Falcon would be in Abuja. Who was using the Falcon in Abuja? Bompty! What are we confronted within this town? You see, all these are there and Ghanaians we are not angry enough! This Falcon was bought by President Kufour who used it.

Bobie: Kufour bought it at the tail end of his administration.

Mensah: When Mills came, he used it. Mahama came and also used it. You came just 2018, you have spent monies to change the interior of the Falcon, wasted the country’s funds and afterwards, you say you don’t have need for it. You are spending the country’s money to charter flights traveling around the world and have given the Falcon to your sibling as if it were a family property. Is the Falcon a property of the family? Is the Falcon your family property to put it at the disposal of your brother?“

Mr. Akufo-Addo has stated that the “words complained of are utterly false and a product of the Defendants’ malicious imagination … calculated solely to disparage him and bring his name into opprobrium.”

Plaintiff has further averred that although the President of Ghana is his brother, “he holds no public office and has never had personal use of the Presidential Jet (the falcon)”. According to Bompty, he has endeavored to live a private life despite his family’s paramount roles played in public service in Ghana, and “has succeeded until the impugned publication by the Defendants”. He further notes that the publications caused substantial damage to his reputation, built out of several years of education out of Ghana and “extensive business dealings with partners outside Ghana”.

Mr. Akufo-Addo further contends that Bobie Ansah in particular repeated these accusations on another radio station and could not defend them when proved by the host.

Plaintiff is therefore claiming against the defendants, jointly and severally; Ten Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢10,000,000) damages for defamation contained in the publication by Defendants on 29/05/21. 

Other reliefs sought include an “apology and retraction of the words complained of … with the same prominence as the impugned publication” as well as a “perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants whether by themselves, their servants, agents or assigns from repeating same or other similar words or and concerning Plaintiff.” Costs are inclusive of legal fees