Court Fines Asiedu Nketia …For Defaming Former Audit Service Chairman

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has been slapped with a cost of GH¢600 in the GH₵15M defamation case by the Board Chairman of the Audit Service, Professor Edward Dua-Agyeman.

The defamatory suit is in connection with Mr Asiedu Nketiah’s comments he made on radio which Prof Dua-Agyeman said was intended to damage his reputation.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah accused Prof Dua Agyeman who is a former Auditor General of churning out “fake” audit reports based on which he was sacked by the accountants’ association.

According to Mr Dua-Agyeman, without basis or probable cause, Asiedu Nketiah “ostensibly sought to impugn his integrity, dignity and reputation to ridicule him in the eyes of right-thinking members of society.”

The plaintiff averred that Asiedu Nketia on October 2, 2018 made some unsubstantiated and disparaging statements on Accra-based radio station, Neat FM, accusing him of producing fake audit accounts in 1983 while he was at the Audit Service.

He is reported to have said that “the plaintiff was banned from auditing in 1983 by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana) for producing “fake” accounts for a non-existent company. In view of the ban, the plaintiff could not practice as a private auditor.

But the former Auditor General took exception to the comments, saying the comments by the General Secretary has generated media attention in Ghana and abroad ostensibly to tarnish his hard-won reputation.

The lawyers for Mr Dua-Agyeman demanded a GH₵10, 000 fine against the NDC General Secretary but the Judge awarded a minimal cost of GH₵600.