COCOBOD CEO refiles GH¢20 million defamation suit against Abronye DC

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Randy Abbey, has refiled a GH¢20 million defamation lawsuit against Kwame Baffoe, the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), popularly known as Abronye DC.

The new suit, filed through private legal practitioner Alex Owoo, comes after an Accra High Court dismissed an earlier writ as “procedurally defective.” The court ruled that the initial action, brought by COCOBOD’s in-house Legal Department, should have been filed by a private lawyer.

In the refiled writ, Mr Abbey accuses Abronye DC of making defamatory statements during a radio programme. The plaintiff claims the NPP chairman alleged that he (Mr Abbey) transports his personal chair from Accra whenever he visits cocoa farms to meet farmers.

Mr Abbey further states that Abronye DC accused him of replacing COCOBOD’s Director of Finance with the intent to misappropriate funds, to the detriment of cocoa farmers.

The refiling follows the court’s earlier decision to throw out the suit on technical grounds, as reported in a related case.

The matter is expected to return before the Accra High Court, though no hearing date has yet been announced.