Court Orders GOC …To File Witness Statement After Erasmus Kwaw Rejects GH¢3,000 Compensation 

Accra High Court: An Accra High Court has ordered the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) to file its witness statement after the plaintiff Mr. Erasmus Kwaw rejected the GOC’s offer to settle out of court.

The plaintiff, Mr. Kwaw, told the court he was not amenable to the defendant’s proposal. Even though it is not too clear why the plaintiff rejected the offer, our reporter at the court said the plaintiff appeared not happy with the settlement offer of GH3000.

Mr. Kwaw told the court he was surprised that a “private” meeting he had held with the GOC’s Secretary General was referred to by the defendant in their offer letter as forming part of their efforts to settle.

He told the court the GOC scribe had said emphatically he was meeting him in his private capacity when the two met on 19th December, 2018.

The court accordingly ordered the GOC to file its witness statement by 13th March after which a date would be set for case management before the case goes to trial.

Our court reporter reports that the plaintiff expressed concern about the judge’s decision to allow the defendant to file witness statement, explaining that the deadline for that statement had long elapsed in July, 2018.

It will be recalled that an Accra High Court fined the Ghana Olympic Committee GH500 for failing to appear in court on Thursday, 31st January.

The court had ordered that parties meet to iron the terms of  settlement but the defendants failed to discuss terms with plaintiff.

This was the second time the GOC was being fined in this case after the court had earlier fined it GH1,000 for filing its statement of defence belatedly.

In his witness statement to the court, Mr. Kwaw claims the “GOC deliberately severed my appointment abruptly in order to enable the defendant perpetrate an illegality in the media accreditation process for the 2018 Commonwealth Games which subsequently resulted in the infamous deportation of the 60 fake Ghanaian journalists.”

Having served the GOC in various capacities as Media Consultant, Press Attache and Project Officer, Mr. Kwaw was relieved off his duties in August, 2018- i.e. in the middle of the media accreditation process for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

This was after the Ben Nunoo Mensah led administration had taken over from the Prof. Francis Dodoo led GOC earlier in March 2017.

The plaintiff claims in his writ that several attempts to collect his entitlement from the defendant did not yield any result.

The court adjourned the case to 13th March 2019.