Case between Rawlings, Danso-Boafo: Terms of settlement to be known Oct 24

The Fast Track High Court has given former President J. J. Rawlings and an author up to October 24, 2014, to announce the terms of an out-of-court settlement over a suit barring the author from launching a book on the life of the former president.

Counsel for former President Rawlings, Mr Atta Akyea, informed the court that his team had sent a draft of its terms of settlement to the legal team of Prof. Kwaku Danso-Boafo, a former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

He said his team was yet to receive a response from the defendants.

Counsel for the author, Mr Alex Quartey, told the court, presided over by Mr Justice L.L. Mensah, that his side would file its response to the terms by the close of work last Monday.

Rawlings sues

Former President Rawlings filed the suit to restrain the defendant from launching a book he had written about him.

An affidavit accompanying the statement of claim accused the former diplomat of breaching a contract to get the former President’s approval of the final draft of the book entitled: “J. J. Rawlings and the Democratic Transition in Ghana.”

The book was to be launched at the Teachers Hall in Accra on Wednesday, August 20, 2014.

Prerequisite

According to the affidavit, Flt. Lt. Rawlings’ approval of the final work was a precondition for the publication of the book, and although Prof. Danso-Boafo duly sent a transcript of the book to him, he (Rawlings) had not yet approved of it because it contained inaccuracies and distortions of the reality.

It said former President Rawlings had “a proprietary interest in the book” and prayed the court to restrain Prof. Danso-Boafo from launching it.

The affidavit said if not restrained, the defendant would go ahead to publish the book which would eventually cause the plaintiff to suffer irreparable loss.

Request

It said Prof. Danso-Boafo approached the former President sometime in 2006, and requested to write a book on him, to which he (Rawlings) gave his blessing on condition that he would approve of the final contents. 

It said consistent with the agreement between the two, Prof. Danso-Boafo released the manuscript to him when he completed his draft of the book. 

“On 1st March 2012, my office delivered a letter to the defendant/respondent, at all material times, Ghana's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, acknowledging receipt of the transcript of the book aforementioned.

“In the said letter, I was emphatic that I would hand over the transcript to a team of literary and legal experts to evaluate and recommend amendments where necessary, given the undeniable fact that the defendant/respondent's whole academic enterprise centres primarily on my person.

This is against the backdrop that the manuscript delivered to me by the defendant/respondent contained several inaccuracies, misinformation and slants which have the potential to poison Ghana's historical records and democratic evolution as well as bringing my name and family into disrepute,” the affidavit further stated.

Shatta Wale pleads for out-of-court settlement

Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr

Dancehall artiste, Shatta Wale, otherwise known as Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr, has made a plea for an out-of-court settlement in a GH¢10 million defamatory suit brought against him by an event organising company, Charter House.

Charter House and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Iyiola Ayoade, dragged Shatta Wale to court on October 2, 2014 for defamation.

Further to that, counsel for the plaintiffs, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, filed a motion for interlocutory injunction which prayed the court to restrain the defendant from further uploading and or making defamatory comments about his client.

At the Fast Track High Court’s hearing in Accra yesterday, counsel for the musician announced to the court that his client would prefer an out-of-court settlement, but Mr Faibille opposed the move, on the grounds that the defendant had not shown any sign of remorse to warrant the settlement.

Opposition to out-of-court settlement

Admitting that the defence team had last Friday written a letter asking for an out-of-court settlement, Mr Faibille argued that Shatta Wale had, after the institution of the suit against him, gone ahead to cause the publication of more defamatory materials on his Facebook page.

That attitude, according to counsel, was a clear indication that the defendant had not repented in any way.

Shatta Wale’s new video sought to portray that the plaintiffs filed the suit because they were cash-strapped.

Restraining order 

Following counsel’s submissions, the court, presided over by Ms Naa Adoley Azu, granted Mr Faibille’s motion for interlocutory injunction and subsequently restrained Shatta Wale and his agents from further publishing defamatory materials about the plaintiffs.

The court also urged the defence team to take steps to concretise their overtures for an out-of-court settlement.

It also directed it to file its defence in the event talks for the settlement failed.

Background

Charter House and Mr Ayoade took legal action after Shatta Wale had accused them of being corrupt and thoughtless in his videos.

The videos also warned the plaintiffs to desist from denying musicians from other regions of Ghana the needed recognition.

Reliefs being sought

A writ of summons accompanying the suit has prayed the court to order the defendant to render an unqualified apology and retract each of the four separate videos.

The plaintiffs further urged the court to allow them to approve separate videos of the said retraction, which they said should remain on the defendant’s Facebook wall for a month.

They are also praying the court to order Shatta Wale to send the videos containing the said apologies to the media houses and online portals that aired the defamatory videos complained of, at his own expense.

Perpetual injunction

Further to that, the plaintiffs are seeking an order for perpetual injunction restraining Shatta Wale from publishing defamatory materials in future.

Shatta Wale was absent in court but was represented by his father. 

Hearing continues on November 3, 2014.

More power from Akosombo, Bui to ease load shedding

Contingency measures have been instituted by the Ministry of Energy for an additional 300 megawatts (MW) of power  to ease the burden associated with the frequent power outages in the country.

A crunch meeting was held at the Ministry of Energy last Thursday to re-evaluate the cutback of power generation at the Bui and the Akosombo power generation stations to find an immediate solution to the current power crisis bedevilling consumers.

“At the end of the meeting, it was decided that the Bui Power Authority (BPA) will begin adding daytime production of 100MW and 200MW at peak time in the short term, while the Akosombo Dam will open one unit, in addition to the four units that are currently generating power,” the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra at the weekend.

He said the Akosombo Dam last Friday began running on five units, instead of the four it had been operating in the past.

“These are temporary measures we are putting in place as we work to generate more power to relieve individuals and businesses of the power crisis,” he said.

Bui Power Authority

Mr Buah said the Bui Dam was generating 200MW due to the low water level in the dam but explained that under the circumstance, the BPA had been given the green light to generate additional 100MW.

“This is a decision to bring immediate relief to the very intense load shedding being faced now,” he said.

“It is expected that the Aboadze thermal plants that are currently down for maintenance works will be brought back into operation soon, so that the dams can be managed.

“There is no amount of words that can explain the difficulty that the people of Ghana are going through with this load shedding and its impact on industries and homes. We are doing everything possible to bring the situation under control,” Mr Buah said.

Power crisis

Ghana is currently grappling with a power generation deficit of between 550MW and 600MW, representing a third of the entire 2,000MW of power generated for distribution. 

The situation is troubling domestic and industrial consumers who have had to either cope with many hours of blackout or spend substantial amounts of money outside their budgets in fuelling their power generators.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) intends to introduce a new schedule of load shedding that will shut down power supply to specific areas for 24 hours, while other areas will enjoy power for 24 hours.

Current challenges in the power sector can be attributed to the drop in the water levels at the Akosombo and the Bui power generation plants, unreliable gas supply to thermal plants from the West African Gas Pipeline Company, the high cost of crude oil to power plants and regular maintenance schedules of power plants.

Energy situation in Ghana

In the past 15 years, about 1,000MW of thermal generation capacity has been added, resulting in Ghana’s current generation capacity of 2,125MW.

The Akosombo Hydroelectric Power Plant supplies about 1,020MW of energy, followed by the Bui Dam, which produces 400MW, with the Aboadze Thermal Plant producing 360MW and the Takoradi Thermal Plant 330MW.  

Kpong produces 160MW, while the country’s first solar plant at Punga in the Upper East Region produces 2MW, giving the country 2,272MW of combined electricity supply. 

 In spite of this, Ghana has continuously operated below capacity.

Power barges

Meanwhile, two emergency power barges are currently under construction to generate 450MW of power to beef up power supply in the country.

The two barges, each of which has 225MW capacity, are expected in the country by the end of the second quarter of 2015. 

Already, the first barge, constructed by Messrs Karadeniz Power Group/Karpower of Turkey, a renowned global power ship manufacturing company, has been completed and is expected in the country by the first quarter of 2015.

The second barge is expected by the second quarter of next year.

Additionally, the Kpone Tema Power plant, which will produce 110MW of power, is currently under construction and is expected to come on stream in 2015.