Kweku Baako ordered to refund all payments received from Ken as court orders retrial

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Makay
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Kweku Baako and Ken Agyapong

The Court of Appeal has ordered a retrial in the defamation case between Ken Agyapong and Kweku Baako after upholding the appeal.

Kweku Baako has been ordered to refund all payments received pursuant to the earlier High Court judgment within 30 days.

Ken Agyapong, in a post after the Court of Appeal decision, stated, “Today, the Court of Appeal, by a unanimous decision, upheld my appeal in the case against Kwaku Baako.

The appeal arose after an earlier judgment by the Accra High Court in favour of Mr Baako, following the striking out of portions of my witness statements at the Case Management Conference (CMC) stage. I challenged that decision because I believed the process and outcome did not reflect the full substance of my case.

The Court of Appeal has now set aside the High Court’s judgment and ordered a retrial of the matter to ensure that the issues are properly determined. In addition, the Court has directed that all monies paid pursuant to the High Court’s judgment be refunded to me within thirty (30) days.

I remain confident in the judicial process and committed to pursuing this matter through the appropriate legal channels”.

It will be reacalled, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jr., some years ago, won a defamatory suit against Kennedy Agyapong.

Ken Agyapong had claimed that Kwaku Baako was involved in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).

The case, which was instituted in 2018, ended in 2020 with the court ruling in favour of Baako.

Kweku Baako was awarded ¢100,000 with the cost of ¢30,000 in damages.

The court also gave the then MP 30 days to retract and apologise three times on the same platform he made those claims.

On 5th May 2023, three years down the line, Mr Agyapong appealed the judgment in court.

Parts of the appeal, “Among the primary issues in contention on this appeal is a commentary made by the applicant [Kennedy Agyapong] about the respondent’s[Kwaku Baako] involvement in galamsey activities by intervening on behalf of a company called C&G Aleska.

The said intervention had to do with the defendant [Kennedy Agyapong] calling on the Minister for Environment Science, Technology and Innovation who was the Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) to allow C&G Aleska to go back on site and continue its illegal mining activities although its license had been revoked confirming respondent’s [Kwaku Baako] influence peddling which also amounts to his involvement in galamsey”.

“The said intervention resulted in the applicant’s [Kennedy Agyapong] commentary that the respondent [Kwaku Baako] was also involved in galamsey. During the trial, the applicant’s [Kennedy Agyapong] effort to get the Chairman of the IMCIM [Frimpong-Boateng] to testify and corroborate the same proved futile, therefore, resulted in the applicant [Kennedy Agyapong] unable to prove his defense of true, fair comment and thus justified.

On the 18th day of April 2023, the applicant [Kennedy Agyapong] chanced upon a confidential document from the Office of the President of Ghana with an attached report prepared by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng which intrinsically addressed the applicant’s [Kennedy Agyapong]concerns and the role played by the respondent [Kwaku Baako] on behalf of C&G Aleska which was involved in galamsey activities.”

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