Accra Mr. Kwaku Asomah- Cheremeh, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has sued the Executive Director of Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, at an Accra High Court for defamation.
The Minister is seeking 10
million Ghana cedis damages from the defendant.
Mr. Abraham Otabil, the Public Relations Officer
of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, confirmed the filing of the
suit by the Minister to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, on Tuesday.
Mr. Thompson is alleged to have accused the
Minister of extorting monies from illegal miners.
In the writ of summons, the Minister said on
April 13, Mr. Thompson, in a press statement, accused Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh of
busily engaging in the extortion of monies from small-scale miners, otherwise
called ‘galamseyers’ in the Western Region during the coronavirus lockdown.
Mr. Thompson also alleged that the Minister
together with his aide, visited several ‘galamsey’ sites in Tarkwa, Wassa
Akropong and Asankragwa, demanding bribes ranging from GH¢10,000 to GH¢20,000
from the ‘galamsey’ operators before allowing them to continue their
activities.
Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh in his response said the
accusations are “untrue, baseless and have injured his hard-won reputation and
lowered him in the eyes of the right-thinking members of the public”.
The Minister prayed the court to order the
defendant to render an unqualified apology to him through the same medium of
publication and retract the defamatory statement.
Source: Ghana News Agency