Lawyers of Volta Ghana Investment Limited (VGIL) have officially written to the New Crusading Guide over a publication dated 9th January 2025.
VGIL lawyers described the article titled “Volta Ghana Investment Limited under Scrutiny” as unlawful.
However, there are documents from the Ghana Police Property Fraud office asking the management of VGIL to assist in investigation into their illegal operations.
“The Hansel Family, being the VGIL grantor, officially wrote to and prompted them for caving into a portion of land that was not part of their property. The lands Commission also notified VGIL through an official letter for trespassing their acquired land boundary as well as a court order asking VGIL to remain in their legal boundary. ”
Further, with a High Court injunction on the land, VGIL published sales of the same land for their personal interest.
The Lawyers of VGIL has therefore threatened to sue the New Crusading Guide paper if they refuse to render an apology for the publication within seven days.
Information gathered indicates that VGIL has filed a defence at the Amasaman High Court weeks ago where other parties involved are set to file their responses for continuation of the legal hearing.
FULL STATEMENT
DEMAND FOR A RETRACTION OF AND APOLOGY FOR DEFAMATORY PUBLICATION. 1. I write in relation to a publication on your website on 23rd December 2024, titled, “Volta Ghana Investment Company Limited under scrutiny for allegedly selling lands under litigation.”, accessible at https://www.modernghana.com/news/1367689/volta-ghanainvestment-company-limited-under-scrut.html 2. We take strong objection to this publication. The said article is deliberately misleading, replete with inaccuracies (that were easily verifiable), and, intentionally damaging to the reputation of Volta Ghana Investment Company Limited (hereafter, VGIL). It insinuates wrongdoing and bad character and thus attacks an asset we hold dear: our reputation. 3. The publication in question contains several defamatory allegations which I set out below: 1. The title claims VGIL is ‘under scrutiny’. This claim implies that a regulator or state enforcement agency is investigating us for noncompliance or criminal behaviour and is designed to impugn our trustworthiness in the minds of rightthinking members of society. Please provide proof of such scrutiny and disclose the institution that is undertaking same. 2. The assertion that VGIL is selling lands under litigation is false. We are a real estate company in Ghana, where land litigation is rife. There is absolutely nothing unusual, or untoward about the existence of litigation over some of the lands we own. That fact does not by itself suggest a defect in our titles. Many of the cases involving us are cases in which we are suing others. There are also cases in which we are defending our title against encroachers. Your article is couched to give the impression that all our properties are under litigation. It is therefore ill-intentioned and defamatory. 3. The preamble to the quote from the judgment is deliberately framed to sound as if our title was vacated. But, as you can see, even from that incomplete quote itself, the court never held that we had no title to the land, but that there was some mismatch between the title and what was on the ground. The decision of a court is found in the orders it issues pursuant to the holdings it makes, not in quotes in parts of the decision. If you were doing proper journalism, you would have sought the decision of the court instead of lifting lines out of context to give the impression that the title was held to be invalid. A good faith article would have checked if the Lands Commission has effected any changes to our title. 4. You claim that we instituted suit no CR/0137/2021 as a review of the 2019 case which you again presented as concluded against us. But that case is still ongoing; a matter that is easily verified from the parties or the court. But due to your mala fides, you did not take these easy steps. 5. You falsely claim that our certificate has been rendered “legally invalid.” It must be because you know that claim is false that you do not say how it was so rendered. Was it canceled? Again, this is easily verified as our title continues in force. 6. You allege that an individual named Agnes, whom you claim to have interviewed, admitted but could not explain why VGIL was selling land under litigation. This assertion reeks of unprofessionalism. Why did you not provide the full name of this individual if you had indeed interviewed her. Ms. Naawu denies ever being interviewed by your journalists on this matter. Your informants came to our office pretending interest in buying land and then claimed that without a document of any sort, they had conducted a search at Lands Commission and found not only that there was litigation on our title but also the last date of court attendance. She told them flatly that they were lying. Land litigation is not recorded at the Lands Commission. Dates of court attendance are certainly not recorded at the Lands Commission. She pointed out that this is the sort of information that can only be obtained from the courts or the lawyers of the parties. If your staff had indeed been interested in journalism, they would have come to us for an honest interview or checked with the court. 7. Your spurious article alleges that we have abandoned the case. Please provide proof of this claim. As I am sure you are aware, it is the court that sets the dates of adjournment of a case, not a party. Therefore, the absence of a stated adjourned date is not proof of abandonment by a party. 8. How does the fact that there is no adjourned date after a 2023 hearing connect to a 2018 letter? Furthermore, why does a letter that we should contact the Survey and Mapping Division for an amendment to our site plan mean we have no valid title? 9. Please provide proof that the company, as you alleged, refused to heed the letter of 14th November 2018.’ I am sure you know that the Lands Commission has copies on file of every certificate and that a person’s refusal to bring a certificate to them for amendment or cancelation cannot by itself keep a certificate in force. 10. We view as the most ill-intentioned, deliberately false and clearly defamatory statement the concluding sentence of your bogus article which claims that we have ‘no valid certificate to transact any business including selling the said lands to any unsuspecting investors and developers.’ We are a company with an extensive asset portfolio. The fact that 20 acres of land within our 200-acre title is being litigated does not in any way affect our ability to transact business as a real estate firm. Indeed, it does not keep us from selling the other 180 acres. We have properties in Pokuase, Ayi Mensah, East Airport, and several places in the Eastern Region. We have been in the industry for over 25 years and have a reputation for trustworthiness to which we attach the greatest value. 4. We therefore demand that you, within seven (7) days from the date of this letter, do the following: a. Immediately retract the defamatory publication on your online platforms as well as any associated platforms. b. Issue a public apology to Volta Ghana Investment Company Limited, to be published with the same prominence as the original article. 5. Should you fail to comply within the stipulated time, we will bring an action against you in defamation to vindicate our reputation. A media house whose credibility as an information source is questioned is one whose existence is endangered. We hope you will, with all haste, act to correct your needless error and thereby save yourself the reputational risk and litigation costs. Do take note that we will not hesitate to use the fullest extent of the law to protect our reputation. Yours faithfully, Kofi Anku Managing Director
