Minister for National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah has filed an application at the High Court praying for an order to allow him to use substituted service to serve Oliver Barker-Vormawor after several failed attempts by bailiffs to serve him.
Mr Kan Dapaah filed a defamation suit against Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the convener of #FixTheCountry, over claims he made to the effect that the National Security Minister offered a bribe of one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) to him as inducement for his movement #FixTheCountry, to stop their demonstrations against government.
Mr Kan Dapaah’s ex-partre motion, which was filed on 19 October, is expected to be moved in the court on Friday, 27 October 2023, by lawyer for the National Security Minister, Bright Okyere Agyekum.
In an accompanying affidavit in support of his motion, Mr Kan Dapaah asserts that “It has not been possible to effect service personally on the defendant (Oliver Baker-Vormawor)with the writ of summons and statement of claim and it has become impracticable to do so as I do not know the place of abode of the defendant and attempts to effect service on him at his place of work as I know, has also proved unsuccessful.”
Mr Dapaah in the affidavit also expressed the belief that “the defendant can be reached by posting/leaving copies of the Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim at the following places: “(a) On the Notice Board of this Honourable Court to remain for a period of 14 days and (b) per single publication in the Daily Graphic “.
Background
On 26 September 2023, Mr Kan Dapaah instructed his Counsel to issue a Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim against Oliver Barker-Vormawor for some comments he made about the National Security Minister.
The comments made by Oliver Baker-Vormawor which the National Security Minister considers defamatory was as follows;
“They went as far as offering us US$1Million, they offered us a Committee Appointment, set up a Committee and appoint us to Government positions in order to stop this activism” Oliver Barker-Vormawor said.
“This was made directly to me and other leaders of Fix the Country Movement. This conversation we had with the Minister of National Security, the Minister of Finance, and a Brigadier General at a safe home” Barker-Vormawor further stated.
Mr Kan Dapaah is, therefore, praying the court for “a declaration that the words uttered by the defendant and paticularized above or words to that effect are defamatory of the Plaintiff.
Second, “recovery of the sum of ten million Ghana cedis (GHc 10, 000,000) as general damages including aggravated and/or exemplary damages for defamation for the words uttered by defendant”.
Third, “an apology for and retraction of the words complained of and fourthly, a perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant from repeating similar or other defamatory words against the Plaintiff. Lastly, he prayed the court for cost.