{"id":12344,"date":"2019-10-18T13:46:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T13:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=12344"},"modified":"2019-10-18T13:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T13:46:05","slug":"court-slaps-gh%c2%a2300k-fine-on-owusu-bempah-despite-group-in-ibrahim-mahamas-defamation-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2019\/10\/18\/court-slaps-gh%c2%a2300k-fine-on-owusu-bempah-despite-group-in-ibrahim-mahamas-defamation-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Slaps GH\u00a2300K Fine On Owusu Bempah, Despite Group In Ibrahim Mahama\u2019s Defamation Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Accra High Court has slapped a GH\u00a2300,000 fine on Ernest Owusu Bempah, Communications Director of Ghana Gas Company Limited and Despite Group of Companies in a defamation suit.<\/p>\n<p>The Court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah Datsa ruled that the comments of the outspoken politician were defamatory used on UTV which is a platform of Despite Group.<\/p>\n<p>Business Mogul, Ibrahim Mahama had sued both GH\u00a22 million for the defamatory comments but judge awarded GH\u00a2300,000 instead and directed the defendants to publish a retraction and apology in the Daily Graphic and on the same platform those defamatory words were used against the plaintiff.<\/p>\n<p>They have also been directed to remove the said defamatory material about the plaintiffs from all archives.<\/p>\n<p>The judge also warned communicators who go on media platforms to malign innocent people to desist from such acts because that will not be tolerated. \u201cErnest Owusu Bempah by publishing those words directed at the person of Ibrahim Mahama, he has defamed him. I shall proceed to grant judgment in favour of the Plaintiff, Ibrahim Mahama. As we move towards next year\u2019s election, we need to be guided.\u201d Justice Georgina Datsa advised<\/p>\n<p>The CEO of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama, last year sued the Communications Director of the Ghana National Gas Company, Ernest Owusu Bempah, along with the Despite Group of Companies \u2013 owners of private TV station UTV last year for defamation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ibrahim Mahama was represented in court throughout the proceedings by his Aide Rafik Mahama. The judge cited his absence as reason for not awarding the full amount of GH\u00a22 million against the defendants but she concluded by saying she understands the busy schedule of the plaintiff hence his absence in court.<\/p>\n<p>The legal team of Mr Ibrahim Mahama was led by Lawyer Reindorf Twumasi Ankrah and supported by Gloria Amoah and Makafui Dzimabi.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>source: mynewsgh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Accra High Court has slapped a GH\u00a2300,000 fine on Ernest Owusu Bempah, Communications Director of Ghana Gas Company Limited and Despite Group of Companies in a defamation suit. The Court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah Datsa ruled that the comments of the outspoken politician were defamatory used on UTV which is a platform [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[4553,13126,9678,10507,10933,911,624,5491,192,1231,3237,5563,5731,3238,11166,12005,10419,10776,3235,130,4755,8386,7465,10143,3954,594],"class_list":["post-12344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-accra","tag-amoah","tag-apology","tag-court","tag-defamation","tag-election","tag-ernest-owusu-bempah","tag-gas","tag-ghana","tag-ghana-gas","tag-ghana-national-gas-company","tag-grant","tag-high-court","tag-ibrahim-mahama","tag-innocent","tag-judge","tag-justice","tag-lawyer","tag-lawyer-reindorf-twumasi-ankrah","tag-mahama","tag-owusu-bempah","tag-platform","tag-sued","tag-utv","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}