Following Castro and Janet Bandu’s mysterious disappearance, a certain Accra based Legal practitioner-Mauriace Ampah took over the airwaves, saying Asamoah Gyan knows the whereabouts of Castro and that the football star was hiding a lot from Ghanaians.
According to Lawyer Maurice Ampah at the time, he had credible information which proved that Asamoah Gyan and his people were lying—and that he was going to make this information public by the end of September.
Instantly, many said the Lawyer was just seeking for undue attention—because if he had such information, there was no point in waiting till the end of the month before disclosing it. But others asked that, we wait. After all, the end of the month was not that far.
At the end of September, Lawyer Ampah provided no information and when put on the spot, he claimed he was going to give his information to the police and not the public.
Later, he said he did not know where Castro is and he never said he had any information about the whereabouts of Castro.
Surely this must have been upsetting for many—for the start, it was DUMB of a legal practitioner to get so involved in such investigative matter and when asked to put his evidence on the table, he then comes throwing dust.
In light of the above, Ghanaian musician/comedian A-Plus (real name Kwame Asare Obeng) took to his facebook page to express his disappointment in Lawyer Ampah’s conduct. In the said write up, A Plus opined that, Lawyer Ampah was DUMB as his various submissions did not add up.
Interestingly, Lawyer-Maurice Ampah has sued A-Plus (we have the documents below) for defamation and he is asking for 1 million Ghana Cedis as damages. Surely, he is suing because A-Plus said he was DUMB—-we think.
I am not sure how a legal practitioner will proceed to sue someone under defamation because the person said he was DUMB—if indeed that is his claim.
In law, opinions cannot be defamatory and therefore, if someone says or thinks you are DUMB—you cannot sue the person for his opinion about you, even if it’s offensive.
As I wrote in my article-Defamation Is Far From What You Think | Being A Celebrity SUCKS! ; “It is worth mentioning that, statements like a person is a ‘Dumb Ass’ even first among ‘Dumb Asses’ communicates no factual proposition susceptible of proof or refutation. It is true that “dumb” by itself can convey the relatively concrete meaning ‘lacking in intelligence.’ Nevertheless, the absence of the ability to proof any factual preposition in this phrase will definitely make it a herculean task when a person wants to proof defamation based on it”.
Few days ago, Donald Trump tweeted to say the South African-Oscar Pistorius Judge-Thokozile Masipa was a MORON for the lenient 5 years punishment she gave out to Oscar. This cannot amount to defamation in Law even if said about a High Court Judge, because that is just Donald Trump’s opinion—this is not a false statement of fact.