DANIEL KWEKU OFOSU MIREKU. vs GIFTY AGGREY & ANOTHER

The Plaintiff filed an Amended Statement of Claim on the 9th of May, 2019 in the Registry of this Court against the Defendants for the following reliefs:

1. Damages for libel

2. Damages for false and malicious words causing damage.

3. An injunction to restrain the Defendants their agents and servants from further speaking or otherwise publishing the said libels affecting the Plaintiff in his callings as a minister of the Gospel or any words impugning the Plaintiff’s character.

Case of Plaintiff

Plaintiff says that before the commencement of this suit, he was an Ordained Minister of the Church of Pentecost in charge of the Opeikuma District of the Church of Pentecost in the Central Region of Ghana with 12 assemblies under his control with a membership of 3500. According to the Plaintiff, on the 29th day of May 2018, the 1st Defendant who claimed to be a member of the Church of Pentecost, falsely and maliciously spoke and published words to the effect that the Plaintiff took 1st Defendant to a hotel at Potsin called YEB Guest House and raped her in one of the hotel rooms. That the 1st Defendant had made a recording of her resistance to the rape amidst shouts for help and that the 1st Defendant has in her possession the tissue paper which she wiped the sperm of Plaintiff which was discharged on the 1st Defendant’s thighs. That the said words were repeatedly published by 1st Defendant to members of the Plaintiff’s congregation, to the Chief of Opeikuma and some members of his family.

Concerning the 2nd Defendant, the Plaintiff contends that she has falsely and maliciously spoken and published of and concerning the Plaintiff to some executive members of the church of Pentecost to the effect that Plaintiff raped the 1st Defendant at a hotel and later pleaded with 1st Defendant for forgiveness. That the 2nd Defendant has on her phone a recording of what happened between the Plaintiff and the 1st Defendant at the hotel where the rape took place. That the 2nd Defendant has in her custody the tissue which the 1st Defendant used to wipe the Plaintiff’s sperms discharged on the thigh of the 1st Defendant. According to the Plaintiff, by these false and malicious publications and words spoken by the Defendants were understood to mean that the Plaintiff had been found guilty of the criminal offence of rape. This has injured Plaintiff’s credit, character and reputation as a Minister of the gospel and brought into public odium and contempt and the Plaintiff has co