Former Board Chairman of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Gary Nimako Marfo, has sued Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), owners of the Fourth Estate over a publication alleging that the NLA signed off a GHS3 billion business deal with KGL “in exchange for peanuts.”
Mr. Nimako in the suit names Seth J. Bokpe, a journalist with Fourth Estate, Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director for MFWA, William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, Philip Teye Agbove, and the Media Foundation for West Africa as defendants.
The plaintiff, who is also a private legal practitioner is seeking GHS10 million in compensatory damages, alongside a public retraction and apology with the same level of prominence as the original story.
Mr. Nimako in the writ argues the publication, which carried a banner headline and included his photo, was defamatory, ill-motivated, and intended to damage his reputation and that of former board members of the NLA.
The publication by The Fourth Estate — an investigative journalism project under the MFWA alleged the NLA had effectively handed over a GHS3 billion revenue stream to KGL Technology Limited for a relatively small annual sum of GHS170 million.
Mr. Nimako however asserts the claims were not only “baseless” but “misleading” as well.
In the writ, he is seeking the following:
1. A declaration that the publication is defamatory;
2. A declaration that it was published without just cause;
3. A declaration that it was aimed at stirring public disaffection toward him and others;
4. An order for GHS10 million in compensatory damages;
5. A public apology and retraction of the article;
6. Legal costs, including solicitor’s fees.
The plaintiff Gary Nimako is represented by his own law firm Marfo & Associates.
Former Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Samuel Awuku, has has also dismissed a report from The Fourth Estate alleging that funds meant for the poor and orphans were instead diverted to “glamorous events and questionable enterprises.”
Mr. Awuku described the report as lopsided and mischievous.
Find Below the Writ from Gary Nimako:
