Ibrahim Sannie Daara has hit controversial journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his company Tiger Eye company with a defamation lawsuit for ‘falsely claiming that he made his colleague accept a bribe on his behalf’ and is demanding 20 million Cedis or $5m in damages over the publication in a recent football documentary.
The Director of Communications of the Ghana FA also filed another lawsuit at the High Court of Justice with Human Rights application insisting the actions of the controversial ‘violated the Applicant’s right to the privacy of his communication which is guaranteed by the Clause 2 of Article 16 of the Constitution’.
The two legal actions were filed by his top-notch lawyers, Dominic Ayine – who is former deputy Attorney General of Ghana and Dr. Theodore Adimazoya – USA trained rising star in the legal field in the country.
Mr Daara is leaving no stones unturned in his bid to clear his name over what he had already described as ‘a deliberate desperate and calculated attempt to damage my image’.
The fightback seems to be underway after an investigation claiming to be exposing corruption in football which has now attracted widespread condemnation over the way of the investigation was conducted.
Mr Daara was clearly seen in the video telling the supposed manager that ‘players are only called to the national team on merit and the player must work harder for national team call ups.’
He clearly declined to take a persistent offer of a gift by the supposed manager which drew big applause for Mr Daara from the audience that saw the premièring of the documentary at the Conference Centre in Accra last month.
Yet subsequent subtitling by Anas, without video to back up the claim, said that Mr Daara took ‘made his colleague to accept the money on his behalf’, - a claim rejected by the latter as ‘completely and utterly false’.
The GFA spokesman insists he never met the supposed manager with any of his colleagues as an errand boy of Hearts of Oak and serial beggar Acquah at the stadium, who Anas used to set him up, was the only person present but his face was excluded from the video and cannot be described as a colleague.
This is what has led the lawyers of the GFA spokesman to put before the court that the portion of the documentary by Anas on him was maliciously done to dent his image insisting he sent no one to take any money on his behalf and no money was delivered to him.
“The defendants deliberately published the content of the documentary knowing that the claims therein were defamatory and false and recklessly not caring whether or not the said claims were false,” the court documents dated 5th July, 2018 read.
“The defendants failed and or neglected to contact the official of the national team with respect to the veracity of the claims published or caused to be published by them.
“The publications were malicious, oppressive, and spiteful and calculated to injure, disparage and lower the esteem with which right-thinking members of the local and international society in general regarded and held the plaintiff.”
The legal suit says they will be demanding a hefty amount as damages and distress caused by the documentary titled No12.
“The plaintiff’s claim is for the sum of Twenty Million Ghana Cedis in general damages for defamation.”
The suit is separate from another lawsuit which was filed by the lawyers of Mr Daara a day before with the plaintiff praying the court to enforce Article 33 of the Constitution of the Ghana.
The human rights action is seeking that the court declares that Anas and his Tiger Eye PI violated Daara’s privacy of communication which is guaranteed by Clause 2 of Article 18 of the Ghana Constitution.
Anas seems to have gone unchallenged in previous investigations but his foray into football has attracted massive scrutiny of his work which has brought him some criticism.
