Private legal practitioner Ace Anan Ankomah has initiated moves to enforce a judgment he won against social media commentator Kevin Ekow Baidoo Taylor in a defamation suit in February 2020. The judgment ordered Taylor to pay a total of GH¢2.95 million in damages.
In February 2020, the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Kweku T. Ackaah-Boafo gave judgment in favor of Ankomah, ordering Taylor to pay damages for defamatory comments made on his social media program dubbed ‘With All Due Respect’. The court described Taylor’s comments as “cavalier” and said that when Ankomah called his bluff and dared him by suing him, Taylor did not “have the cojones to respond” in spite of him creating the impression of being able to appear anywhere to defend his “bombastic video”.
Ankomah, who was represented in court by Mr Thaddeus Sory with Marie-Nicole Poku, had sued Taylor and his firm, Loud Silence Media, demanding GH¢10 million as damages for dragging his name in the mud. Taylor had accused Ankomah in one of his videos of allegedly being involved in a scheme by a Dubai-based minerals firm, and some top members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of planning to destroy the CEO of embattled Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah also known as NAM1.
The court held that it had jurisdiction in the matter because the defamatory matter was intended to be shared in Ghana, received considerable interest in Ghana, was downloaded in Ghana where Ankomah has ties, and that injury to Ankomah in Ghana was foreseeable. The court also ordered a perpetual injunction to restrain the publication of further material and asked the defendants to publish an apology within 14 days.
