Court slaps Barker-Vormawor with GH₵5 million in Kan Dapaah defamation case

The High Court in Accra has awarded general damages of GH₵5 million against Oliver Barker-Vormawor in favour of former National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah for defamation.

According to a report by Asaaseradio.com, the court also ordered Barker-Vormawor to pay an additional GH₵100,000 in legal costs to Kan Dapaah.

Delivering his judgment, Justice (Rev.) Joseph Owusu Adu-Agyeman stated, “All the reliefs claimed by the Plaintiff (Kan Dapaah) are granted, except that the compensation claim of relief B (GH₵10 million) is reduced to GH₵5 million.”

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Prior to the ruling, Barker-Vormawor’s legal team, led by Baffour Gyau Bonsu Ashia, sought to relist their Statement of Defence and Witness Statement, which had previously been struck out. The court dismissed the application, describing it as alien to the procedural rules.

Kan Dapaah had filed the suit seeking GH₵10 million in damages over an alleged US$1 million bribery claim levelled against him. The allegations were made while he served as National Security Minister, and he accused Barker-Vormawor, the former FixTheCountry Movement convener, of defamation.

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The case arose after Barker-Vormawor claimed that Kan Dapaah and other government officials had approached him with money to halt his activism against the government. Kan Dapaah denied the allegations and subsequently initiated legal action for defamation, seeking both general and aggravated damages.

He had requested “recovery of the sum of ten million Ghana cedis (GH₵10,000,000.00) as general damages, including aggravated and/or exemplary damages for defamation for the words uttered by the Defendant.” He also sought “an apology for and retraction of the words complained of” and “a perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant from repeating similar or other defamatory words against the Plaintiff.”

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The High Court ruling marks a significant legal development in a case that had drawn national attention due to its political and social implications.