The Winneba Magistrate Court has, on Friday, 28th August, 2020, given its judgment in a defamatory suit brought against James Kofi Annan by the Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.
In the decision of the court, the press conference held by James Kofi Annan which was widely circulated in the media was not only defamatory but slanderous as well.
The winneba magistrate court consequently slapped him GHc20,000 as damages and additional GHc5000 as cost of legal fees.
James Kofi Annan has also been ordered to not only write to all the media networks that published his defamatory effusions at that press conference but to also go to all the radio and TV stations he used for his agenda to retract and apologize to the Member of Parliament for defaming him.
These, he is to embark upon not later than Monday, 31st August, 2020. Failure to do these would result in consequences he may not be able to withstand.
It could be recalled that the defendant, James Kofi Annan, held a press conference and, amongst other things, alleged that Afenyo-Markin had plotted an allegation of financial impropriety against him and that the Effutu MP was involved in a grand scheme to taint his image and to jeopardize his chances of winning the Effutu seat as MP.
Honourable Afenyo-Markin, as a result, petitioned the court to seek damages for impugning ill motives against his person, reliefs the court has granted and ordered the defendant to strictly adhere to.