Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has discontinued his GH¢2 million defamation suit against the Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Eric Adjei, and two others, days after the High Court dismissed his separate GH¢15 million defamation action against Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) CEO Sammy Gyamfi.
The suit, filed on August 28, 2026, sought compensation over alleged extortion allegations, alongside general damages for libel, aggravated and exemplary damages, and several declaratory and injunctive orders.
The plaintiff also sought an order compelling the defendants to publish a full, unconditional and unequivocal retraction of the alleged defamatory statements and issue a public apology with the same prominence and reach as the original publication.
He further requested that the retraction and apology be broadcast on Peace 104.3 FM and published on the electronic and social media platforms through which the statements were disseminated. Other reliefs included a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from publishing similar statements, GH¢2 million in compensation and legal costs.
At the Achimota Circuit Court on Tuesday, October 20, counsel for Mr Afenyo-Markin, Paa Kwesi Abaidoo, told the court that the parties had reached an agreement to bring the matter to an end.
He said an agreement had been reached with counsel for the first defendant, Eric Adjei, to discontinue the writ on the understanding that the defendants would also withdraw their pending application challenging the suit, while the plaintiff would withdraw his application to amend the writ.
Counsel for Mr Adjei, Seth Nyaaba, confirmed the agreement, telling the court that the parties had discussed discontinuing the action and that the defence had withdrawn its application to set aside the writ.
He argued that discontinuing the writ, which formed the foundation of the suit, rendered the other pending applications in the matter unnecessary. He added that the defence had no objection to the discontinuance.
Counsel for Despite Company Limited, which was also listed as a defendant, associated himself with the positions of the plaintiff and the first defendant and indicated that his client had no objection to the discontinuance.
After hearing the parties, the court, presided over by Her Honour Mrs Akosua Anokyewaa Adjepong, struck out the writ as discontinued. It also struck out the pending application to set aside the writ and the plaintiff’s application to amend.
The court made no order as to costs.
The discontinuance comes less than a week after the Accra High Court, General Jurisdiction 1 Division, dismissed Mr Afenyo-Markin’s GH¢15 million defamation suit against GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi.
In a ruling delivered on October 14, 2026, Justice Agyenim Boateng held that the writ of summons filed on August 24, 2026, was incurably defective and incompetent because it failed to state sufficient particulars of the alleged defamatory publication, as required under Order 57, Rule 2 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47).
The court relied on Supreme Court decisions in Coleman v Newmont and Owusu Domena v Amoah, distinguishing the case from instances in which particulars contained in a statement of claim could cure defects in a writ. The judge noted that Mr Gyamfi’s lawyers had entered a conditional appearance and promptly challenged the writ.
The ruling was procedural and did not determine whether Mr Gyamfi’s description of Mr Afenyo-Markin as an “extortionist” on August 22, 2026, during exchanges over the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, was defamatory.
