Afenyo-Markin’s “delusional” GH¢15M defamation suit against Sammy Gyamfi thrown out

An Accra High Court has dismissed the GH¢15 million defamation suit filed by the Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, against Samuel “Sammy” Gyamfi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).

Presiding over the case on October 14, 2026, the court’s General Jurisdiction 1 struck out the case, ruling that the writ of summons was incurably defective and incompetent, failing to meet mandatory procedural rules governing libel actions.

According to the court, the ruling was strictly a procedural termination and did not determine whether the remarks were actually defamatory.

Genesis of the Dispute

The legal feud erupted in August 2026 following heated public debates regarding the financial operations of the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. Afenyo-Markin, the Member of Parliament for Effutu and minority leader, had publicly demanded transparency and accountability regarding a reported US$1.7 billion loss within the initiative.

In a sharp response during an August 22 broadcast of JoyNews’ Newsfile, Sammy Gyamfi contested those figures and explicitly labeled the Minority Leader an “extortionist”.

The Legal Actions Taken

In response to the broadcast, Afenyo-Markin initiated defamation proceedings, seeking:

GH¢15 million in general damages.

An unqualified public apology and a total retraction of the claims.

A permanent injunction blocking any future publications of the extortion allegations.

The lawsuit also named Multimedia Group Limited—the parent company of JoyNews- as a co-defendant. However, Gyamfi’s legal representatives, Ayine and Partners, aggressively moved to set aside the suit, arguing that the structure of the writ failed to appropriately invoke the court’s jurisdiction.

Mr Gyamfi’s lawyers challenged the action, arguing that the writ failed to comply with the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47), which set out specific requirements for initiating libel proceedings. They applied to have the writ set aside.

Court’s Final Stance

In its decision, the court relied on Order 57 Rule 2 of C.I. 47, which requires a writ in a libel action to contain sufficient details of the allegedly defamatory publication to make it identifiable.

The judge held that the provision imposes a specific procedural obligation that must be met before a defamation action can properly be brought before the court. The court rejected the suggestion that general provisions under the rules could excuse non-compliance with the requirements for libel cases.

The court also examined the Supreme Court’s decision in Owusu Domena v Amoh, in which information contained in a statement of claim was accepted as curing a defect in a writ. The judge distinguished that case, noting that the defendant in the present matter had not raised an objection and had participated in the proceedings, unlike Mr Gyamfi, whose lawyers promptly challenged the writ.

The judge further relied on a Supreme Court decision involving Alex Onuma and others against Newmont, which highlighted the need to comply with Order 57 Rules 2 and 3(1) of C.I. 47 in defamation proceedings.

As a result, the current proceedings under this specific writ have officially come to an end. It remains to be seen if Afenyo-Markin’s legal team will correct the technical errors and refile the suit.

By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH

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