Lawyer Sam Okudzeto
Senior Lawyer and member of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council, Mr. Sam Okudzeto has been dragged to the court for defamation following his alleged comment that sought to defame the publisher of Awake Africa Newspaper, Mr. Emmanuel Korsi Senyo.
In the writ filed by Mr. Emmanuel Korsi Senyo last Tuesday, November 28, 2017, he is seeking the court to, among other things award Mr. Okudzeto costs, general damages for assault and defaming him.
The civil rights activist is seeking the court to put and an interlocutory injunction restraining the Mr. Sam Okudzeto howsoever from sitting as a [ads1]member of the General Legal Council pending the determination of this suit.
He is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the Mr. Okudzeto from sitting as a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council; an order directing the General Legal Council to remove him as a member of its Disciplinary Committee.
According to Mr. Senyo in his writ, he filed a petition at the General Legal Council against the Mr. Okudzeto and two other lawyers over alleged professional misconduct on the part of the said lawyers. His petition was however dismissed by the Disciplinary Committee on October 28, 2017.
Mr. Senyo stated that about some few minutes after the Chairman of the Committee, Justice William Atuguba dismissed the case, Mr. Okudzeto drew the attention of the Chairman said;
“If you don’t know, go and ask those you are supporting. I taught them and ask them what I taught them. I’m a law professor. Mr. Chairman, he has been using his media to scandalize my name and the next time you do that again, I will take legal action against you”
“If you don’t know the law. Go and get better lawyers to be advising you. If you bring a case to the Council, allow the Committee to handle the case not using your media to be scandalizing my name.”
These statements by the member of Council of State, Mr. Okudzeto according to Mr. Senyo are “false and malicious utterances by the Defendant meant and were naturally and ordinarily understood to mean that the Plaintiff (he Mr. Senyo) was dishonest and unprofessional in his profession as a Journalist”
He also said Mr. Okudzeto’s “allegation was made without any justification and/or lawful excuse and calculated to injure his reputation and also expose him to hatred, ridicule, damage to his person and profession”
Mr. Senyo added that “the aforementioned statements made by the Defendant [Mr. Okudzeto] were said with malice and with the sole intent of reducing him in the estimation of all right-thinking members of society as corrupt and dishonest Journalist”
The young and hardworking journalist continued that “due to the allegation made by the Defendant [Mr. Okudzeto], he has suffered great distress, embarrassment and damage to his reputation as a Journalist”
For him, the “words by the Defendant were calculated to disparage” him personally and in consequence, his reputation as a “Journalist has been seriously damaged in the eyes of well-meaning persons in the society and colleague journalists”. This, according to him has made him “suffered much distress and embarrassment”
On the issue assault, Mr. Senyo said: “the Defendant kept making gesticulations at him and advanced towards him with an intention to use violence whiles making this statement”.
According to him, “the gesticulations made by the Defendant [Mr. Okudzeto] manifested an intention or threat to the defendant to commit battery” on him and “that the Defendant had the ability to execute this intention.”
In his writ, the citizen of Ghana who has already filed three writs at the Supreme Court against the General Legal Council is saying Mr. Okudzetor by his action against him after the proceedings were over amounts to misconduct and lack of competence to sit on the GLC’s committee.
“such misconduct on the part of the Defendant [Mr. Okudzeto] does not make him a person competent enough to sit as a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council” – Mr. Senyo said
He noted that “such misconduct by the Defendant [Mr. Okudzeto] may deter others from bringing their grievances or complaints before the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council for fear of intimidation, mental anxiety or such emotional disturbance.”
Source: AwakeAfrica.com