The High Court in Accra has thrown out a defamation lawsuit brought by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Anertey Abbey, against the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe Abronye.
The decision was handed down on Monday, January 19, 2026, by Justice Halimah El-Alawa Abdul Baasit at the High Court, General Jurisdiction 2, in Accra. Dr. Abbey had initiated the case on August 26, 2025, claiming that Mr. Abronye had broadcast and published defamatory statements that damaged his personal reputation. The suit was filed seeking individual compensation for the alleged defamation.
The court, however, ruled that the action was improperly commenced because it was instituted through COCOBOD’s Legal Department, despite being brought in Dr. Abbey’s private capacity. COCOBOD itself was not named as a party in the matter. Lawyers for Mr. Abronye had contended that a state entity’s legal department cannot act on behalf of an individual in a personal legal dispute, an argument the court accepted.
Justice Abdul Baasit clarified that defamation constitutes a personal tort designed to safeguard an individual’s reputation, not that of a public institution.
“The plaintiff, having sued in his personal capacity, ought to procure the services of a private legal practitioner to represent him,” she stated. She further emphasised that public institutional legal resources cannot be deployed for matters that are strictly personal in nature, which rendered the writ and statement of claim legally incompetent. As a result, the High Court dismissed the entire suit and directed that no costs be awarded to either side.
The original claim had demanded GHS 20 million in damages for what Dr. Abbey described as false, malicious, and defamatory remarks made by Mr. Abronye during a public broadcast.
Editor:
Obiri-Yeboah
