A lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), has apologized to Deputy Majority Leader, Alex Afenyo-Markin, after authoring and publishing words that defamed the three-term Member of Parliament for Effutu. Alhassan Salifu Bawah, who heads Procurement & Supply Chain Management at UEW, had written an article that was widely published on social media and in the Supreme Newspaper, where he called the Effutu MP a “miserable crook parading as an MP”.
The article was said to have been originally published on a WhatsApp page for lecturers and staff of UEW, and it was widely circulated on other platforms, compelling Afenyo-Markin to file a defamation suit against Mr. Bawah. In his suit, Afenyo-Markin prayed for a declaration that the “description of the Plaintiff as ‘a miserable crook parading himself as an MP’ in the article authored by the Defendant, is defamatory and that the publication was actuated by malice aimed at tarnishing” his reputation.
Afenyo-Markin also sought an order directing Mr Bawah “to render an unqualified apology to the plaintiff through the same medium the defamatory words were published.” In addition, he prayed for an “order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant from further publishing any defamatory articles against the Plaintiff” and asked the Court to impose “general damages of Five Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵500,000.00) against the defendant”.
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In his statement of defense, Mr. Bawah denied authoring the said article. The case was then brought to court where the parties explored the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. After some discussions and consultations, Mr. Bawah offered an unconditional apology for the publication he had made about Mr. Afenyo-Markin. The apology was accepted by the Deputy Majority Leader.
As part of the settlement, Mr. Bawah posted a retraction of the offending publication on the WhatsApp platform he used to circulate the original article. He also brought the retraction to the attention of the magistrate. The terms of the settlement included Mr. Bawah’s unconditional apology, withdrawal of the offending statement, and an undertaking to withdraw the statement from the WhatsApp platform of the University where the statement was originally published.
The settlement was subsequently filed at the court’s registry, and the parties returned to formally inform the magistrate that a settlement had been reached. In the spirit of the settlement, Mr. Afenyo-Markin withdrew the suit he had filed against Mr. Bawah, and there was no order as to cost. The parties agreed that the terms of the settlement would be adopted as a consent judgment between them.
