‘Side chick’ case: Court yet to deal with substantive matter

The case in which a woman has sued the chief finance officer of a bank for allegedly breaching an agreement to take care of her, came up once more at the High Court in Accra with tangential issues hanging in the way of the substantive matter.

At the court’s first hearing, the presiding judge, Justice Olivia Obeng Owusu, had ordered the parties in the case to file their written submissions to enable the court to delve into the substantive matter.

However, when the case was called yesterday, lawyers for the man sued by Deborah Seyram Adablah, had filed an application seeking leave to file a supplementary affidavit in support of their written submission.

Counsel for Ernest Kwasi Nimako, a Chief Finance Officer of the bank where the young woman did her national service and has made sexual harassment claims against in her suit, notified the court about the application.

However, counsel for the plaintiff, Mohammed Attah, told the court that his client had also filed an application seeking to oppose the application filed by Nimako.

Counsel argued on grounds that lawyers for Nimako failed to state precisely the paragraphs of his affidavit they wanted to respond to. 
He added that Nimako’s lawyers ought to have filed the supplementary affidavit as of right because that was the practice.

That was contested by Nimako’s lawyer, Ama Opoku Amponsah.

She argued that counsel’s position that they ought to have attached a proposed supplementary affidavit was not known to the rules of  court. 

By Court

The presiding judge, Justice Owusu adjourned the case to April 6, 2023.

She urged counsel for Adablah to serve the bank with his written submissions.

She is expected to give a ruling on the applications filed by the Nimako, which was seeking leave to file a supplementary affidavit in support of their written submission.

In a suit dated Monday, January 23, 2023, filed at the Accra High Court,  Adablah contends that her “sugar daddy,” Ernest Kwasi Nimako agreed to buy her a car, pay for her accommodation for three years, give her a monthly stipend of GH¢3,000, marry her after divorcing his wife and also give her a lump sum to start a business.

It is her case that Nimako, although bought the car and registered it in his (sugar daddy’s name), he has taken the car back, denying her access to use it after about a year of enjoying the Honda Civic worth GH¢120,000, while he also paid for only one year accommodation, even though he promised to pay for three years.

 Adablah who claims that she was forced into the relationship during the period she did her national service at the bank where Ernest Kwasi Nimako works, has also accused Nimako of abuse, sexual harassment, maltreatment, exploitation and also lowering her reputation.

Reliefs

The plaintiff is seeking an order from the court directed at the “sugar daddy” to transfer the title of the car into her name and also give her back the car.

She is also asking the court to order the defendant to pay her the lump sum to enable “her start a business to take care of her self as agreed by the plaintiff and the defendant.”