Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has withdrawn the defamation action he initiated against the Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Eric Adjei and two others few days after the High Court has thrown out a similar one against Sammy Gyemfi.
The action, filed on August 28, 2026, was seeking GH¢2 million as compensation for alleged extortion allegations.
The Plaintiff was seeking General damages for libel, Aggravated and Exemplary damages, as well as a series of declaratory orders including an order directing the defendants to publish a full, unconditional and unequivocal retraction of the alleged defamatory statements and a public apology with the same prominence and reach as the original publication.
He was also seeking an order directing that the retraction and apology be broadcast on Peace 104.3 FM and published on the electronic and social media platforms through which the publication was disseminated, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further publishing similar defamatory words, costs of GH¢2 million as compensation and legal costs.
Before the Achimota Circuit Court on Tuesday, October 20, Counsel for the Minority Leader, Paa Kwesi Abaidoo, said the parties had reached a consensus to bring the matter to an end.
He submitted that it had been agreed with counsel for the first defendant (Eric Adjei) to discontinue the writ on the understanding that the defendants’ pending application challenging the action would also be withdrawn, as well as the plaintiff’s own pending application for amendment.
Counsel for the first defendant, Seth Nyaaba, who also leads counsel for GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi in a related defamation matter, confirmed the agreement at the Bar.
He told the court that both sides had discussed discontinuing the action and that the defence had withdrawn its application to set aside the writ.
Counsel noted that once the writ – which is the foundation of the suit, is discontinued, all other pending processes collapse, adding that they were not opposed to the discontinuance.
Counsel for Despite Company Limited, listed as a defendant in the matter, associated himself with the position taken by the plaintiff and the first defendant, indicating they had no objection to the discontinuance.
By Court
The Court presided over by Her Honour Mrs. Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong after hearing the parties, struck out the writ as discontinued. It also struck out the pending motion to set aside the writ and the plaintiff’s application to amend.
The court made no order as to costs.
Background – Sammy Gyamfi Ruling:
The withdrawal comes less than a week after the Accra High Court, General Jurisdiction 1 Division, dismissed Afenyo-Markin’s GH¢15 million defamation suit against Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) CEO Sammy Gyamfi.
In a ruling delivered on October 14, 2026, Justice Agyenim Boateng held that the writ of summons filed on August 24, 2026 was incurably defective and incompetent because it failed to endorse sufficient particulars of the alleged defamatory publication as mandatorily required under Order 57, Rule 2 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47).
The court relied on the Supreme Court decisions in Coleman v Newmont and Owusu Domena v Amoah, distinguishing the case from instances where particulars in a statement of claim could cure a defective writ because Gyamfi’s lawyers had entered conditional appearance and promptly challenged the writ.
The ruling was purely procedural and did not determine whether Gyamfi’s description of Afenyo-Markin as an “extortionist” on August 22, 2026, during exchanges over the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, was defamatory.
