Ghana FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi has launched a $2m libel suit against a Ghanaian broadcast company that he says described him as the ‘head of a mafia.’
Nyantakyi is suing Multimedia Broadcasting Limited (MBL) and two of its journalists, Patrick Osei Agyeman and Kofi Asare Brako.
“I am not interested in money or punishment but to set the record straight,” Nyantakyi, a Fifa Council member, told BBC Sport.
The case will begin on Monday in Accra.
It will be heard in the Accra High Court.
Nyantakyi, an executive committee member of the Confederation of African Football, claims Asempa FM – a local-language FM station owned by MBL – tarnished his image in a series of broadcasts involving both journalists.
Thadeus Sory, Nyantakyi’s lawyer, told BBC Sport that his client was described as ‘heading a mafia’ and stealing money meant for the GFA.
“They’ve called me a ‘thief’, ‘armed robber’ and a ‘corrupt’ man,” added Nyantakyi.
“I have sued them. I want to uphold standards in journalism in Ghana which have been thrown to the dogs.”
“The allegations are defamatory. To call him the head of a mafia is to impute criminality,” said Thadeus Sory, Nyantakyi’s lawyer.
The GFA president’s conduct has been under scrutiny since a government-instituted panel of enquiry recommended last year that he refund $412,000 budgeted for the 2014 World Cup, “which he has failed to account for.”
Nyantakyi, who has led Ghanaian football since 2005, is challenging the enquiry’s verdict in court.
Agyeman, one of the two journalists being sued, refused to be drawn on the libel suit when contacted by BBC Sport.
“My lawyers have advised me not to speak,” he replied.
“We will show up in court on Monday, because we have been summoned to do so,” Ekyi Quarm, MBL’s Chief Executive Officer, told BBC Sport.
