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The Director of Communications for the Ghana Gas Company Limited, Ernest Owusu Bempah and his lawyers are pleading the court that the defamatory statements of theft he made against Ibrahim Mahama, were made “in the heat of passion”.
In his appeal seeking to overturn a GHC 300,000 defamatory ruling slapped on him, Owusu Bembah’s lawyers wrote: “The learned trial Judge erred when she held that the words spoken by the 1st Defendant (Ernest Owusu Bempah) in the heat of passion on a political discourse between the 1st Defendant and the NDC Panelist was actionable in a defamation suit.”
According
to his appeal documents, the trial judge failed to take into account the
“provocative” statement of his NDC co-panelist on the said show. He says he was
provoked to act in the heat of passion to say what he is alleged to have said.
Mr Bempah filed the appeal against a judgment of Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa
on October 18, 2019, shortly after Ibrahim Mahama, the junior brother of
ex-President Mahama secured a judgment against Owusu Bempah for referring to
him as one of the looters of the state during the administration of the
erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“The learned trial Judge erred when she failed to properly evaluate the evidence
before the court in totality considering the derogatory statements made by the
NDC Panellist against the 1st Defendant which led to the statement uttered by
the 1st Defendant.”The judgement is against the weight of evidence,” the appeal
signed by his lawyer, Gary Nimako Marfo of Safo and Marfo at Law stated.
The Ghana Gas Communications Director is seeking “an order reversing the
judgement of the High Court.”
Ibrahim Mahama won a defamation case against the embattled Owusu Bempah and UTV of the Despite Group. The businessman Ibrahim Mahama was initially seeking damages totalling GHC 2 million but the court granted him a fraction of his demand because he apparently never appeared physically in court, opting to send representatives instead.