Nana Oye Bampoe sues ex-husband Tony Lithur, demands US$1.5  million in damages 

Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, a former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has sued her ex-husband Tony Lithur, for libel over statements made in the divorce petition filed on May 2, 2018 and which has been published.

Tony and Nana Oye married on April 14, 1991 under customary law.

The union was converted into ordinance marriage by the parties in January 1998.

On May 2, 2018, Tony Lithur, a senior legal practitioner, filed a petition for divorce against Nana Oye, which has since been heard partly.

The statements made in the divorce petition was subsequently published in the media.

It is based on this publication that Nana Oye is arguing she has been defamed by Mr Lithur.

According to her, Mr Lithur made false averments in the divorce petition, and caused the defamatory words to be published.  

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In a news report filed by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Nana Oye is, therefore, demanding general damages of US$500,000 and exemplary damages of US$1 million. 

She said in Mr Lithur’s response dated July 9, 2018, he again made false averments and caused them to be published to defame her.

Nana Oye said these false statements about her were maliciously and knowingly published by Mr Lithur in his divorce petition and response.

These were severally printed,  broadcast and published across the world wide web, newspapers, broadcast channels, social media and by bloggers. 

According to Nana Oye, the words and statements contained in the petition referred her to as an “adulterer with loose morals”, a “cruel and violent person, a lazy and irresponsible mother”.

It also portrayed her as a person, who though holding herself out as a human rights lawyer, was violating the rights of her household members with acts in direct contradiction to her profession, she stated.

She contended that Mr Lithur’s statement about her intention to purchase an investment property in South Africa soon after leaving office in the sum of US$350,000 to US$500,000.00 inferred that she was not only a corrupt person, but also abused her office to steal public funds to enable her to purchase the alleged property. 

Nana Oye said due to the false averments and publications of the acquisition of investment property in South Africa by Mr Lithur, the OSP instituted investigations into corruption and corruption-related offences, money laundering and illegal acquisition of property in South Africa against her. 

She was, subsequently, admitted to bail, while a pending case was published against her by the OSP,  making her engage legal services to defend herself. 

Nana Oye denied committing any of the acts alleged by Mr Lithur, saying he published the defamatory words knowing very well that they were untrue.

The sole intention was to cause considerable damage to her and to disparage her reputation, she noted.  

The former Gender Minister said because of these false statements and publications by the defendant, she had been seriously injured in her reputation and had been shunned and brought to public ridicule, hatred, scandal, odium, and contempt. 

She said since the publication, she had been inundated with phone calls, insults, and humiliation.

She also had had to avoid certain public appearances and had to resign from lecturing at a particular tertiary institution. 

She stated that she had since been  “answering embarrassing questions and suffering humiliating treatments from different people, including strangers, associates, friends, family members, foreigners, some members of the international community, international acquaintances, and colleague professionals.”

Nana Oye is, therefore,  seeking some reliefs - including a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant jointly and severally, “either by himself and or his assign(s) from further making any averments or publishing or causing to be published, the said defamatory words or similar words.”  

She also wants Mr Lithur to retract his statement and apologise and cause the apology to be published on social media, including his Facebook wall, the website of Lithur, Brew & Company, on Twitter (now X) and the Instagram handles of the defendant, and all his social media handles.

credit: GNA