Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority has sued Multimedia Group and Joy News over a documentary which cites him in an alleged case of corruption.
The media house accused the NLA of procurement breaches in the purchase of some Point of Sale devices.
It alleged that the nation was robbed of $10million by the Director-General of the NLA in the deal.
But in a defamatory suit filed at the Accra High Court, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw demanded GHC10milion in damages from the media house saying the media house did not respect his "right to be heard" before airing the documentary.
“The Plaintiff is therefore before the General Jurisdiction (a High Court Division) seeking a declaration that Multimedia Group’s documentary on him as the NLA boss, has “a right to be heard” in relation to the Ghana Journalists Association of which the defendant Journalists are members”.
Kofi Osei-Ameyaw is also "seeking perpetual injunction against the defendant, its agents, assigns and servants from further publishing, debating or discussing any defamatory words against him".
The Plaintiff is further seeking "GH¢10-million for defamation and an exemplary damages for defamation.”
The NLA in an earlier statement copied to www.ghanaweb.com, the NLA described the documentary as ‘baseless and without an iota of truth”
It highlighted some errors in the documentary and berated the media house for not adhering to the ethics of the profession.
“First and foremost, the whole content of the documentary is baseless and without any iota of truth. It is never true that the cost of the Android Point of Sale Terminals were inflated by the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority as alleged by the Joy News/Joy FM/Multimedia Group Limited”.
“It is also never true that the National Lottery Authority has procured 30, 000 Android Point of Sale Terminals. The Public Procurement Authority gave approval to the Authority to procure 30,000 Point of Sale Terminals but according to the financial strength of the Authority only 5,000 out of the 30,000 Point of Sale Terminals have been purchased”.
The state gaming body argued that the POS devices it purchased have different features from the device on which price the documentary was based
It disclosed that the terminals it purchased are android powered and not analogue as the station alluded.
“Again, the Android Point of Sale Terminals are not just ordinary POST Machines. The Android Point of Sale Terminals have special technological features aimed at supporting NLA to offer VALUE ADDED SERVICES unlike the usual Analogue POSTs Machines which lack the capacity to perform the functions of Value Added Services”.
“Therefore, it is very naive and ignorant for Joy News/Joy FM/Multimedia Group Limited to conclude that the Authority has procured 30,000 Android Point of Sale Terminals at an inflated cost of over $10 million dollars”.
The NLA said it was surprising that Multimedia decided to air the documentary despite the case being heard at the court following a suit by the Kofi Osei-Ameyaw.
“ It is instructive to state that, Hon. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, the Director-General of the NLA has sued Multimedia Group Limited in this particular subject matter and the case is still pending at the Court”.
“If not for purposes of propaganda and mischief, Joy News/Joy FM/Multimedia Group Limited has every right under the law to submit their evidence to the Court for final determination of the case but no, they chose to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians and the general public”.
Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Director-General of the National Lottery Authority