Kweku Baako Defeats Kennedy Agyapong in Defamation Case

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr has won his defamatory suit against Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Agyapong.

Mr Kennedy Agyapong raised certain allegations against Mr Baako which were deemed defamatory for which the ace journalist turned to the court.

“Mr Kennedy Agyapong openly accused me of engaging in ‘galamsey’. He also said Anas and I conspired to blackmail the president and so when Anas went to the president for the Number 12 thing it was only I, Anas and the president, only the three of us and I had a secret camera which I used to film the president…,” Kweku Baako explained in a panel discussion on Good Morning Ghana

According to Mr Baako, the viciousness of the character assignation propelled by the Assin Central lawmaker caused him to test the provisions of the law.

On Friday morning, the High Court came out with its verdict and ruled in favour of Mr Baako.

The court has consequently given Mr Kennedy Agyapong 30 days to retract and apologise three times on the platforms he used to defame Kweku Baako.

Damage was set at Ghc100,000 with cost of Gh30,000.

Background

Mr. Baako in October 2018, filed a GH¢25 million defamation suit against the outspoken legislator for some alleged defamatory comments against him on various radio stations in the month of July.

Apart from the damages, Mr. Baako had appealed to the high court to compel the MP to apologise and retract his defamatory comments as well as perpetually restrain ‘Mr. Agyapong, his agents, assigns and servants from further publishing any defamatory words against him’.

There had been earlier reports that Kennedy Agyapong  was seeking an out of court settlement on the matter, but the negotiations failed.

The High Court in its subsequent ruling today [Friday, June 26, 2020] gave Mr. Kennedy Agyapong 30 days to retract and apologise three times on the platforms he used to defame Kweku Baako.

These platforms include his own media stations Net2 TV and Oman FM, and Multimedia stations, Adom FM and Asempa FM.