Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu says the GH¢15 million defamation lawsuit filed by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin against Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi takes attention away from the country’s development agenda.
He has urged the two parties to consider mediation and resolve the dispute outside court, arguing that the time spent on the litigation could be better used to scrutinise government actions and promote national development.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Mr Kpebu said that although Mr Afenyo-Markin could correct the procedural errors that led to the dismissal of his suit and return to court, an amicable settlement would be preferable.
“Because I think that lawsuit takes a lot away from a quest for development. We should be using the time to interrogate and scrutinise government actions rather than the lawsuit,” he said.
The High Court’s General Jurisdiction 1 dismissed Mr Afenyo-Markin’s GH¢15 million defamation suit against Mr Gyamfi on Wednesday, October 14, ruling that the writ was incurably defective and incompetent and could not properly invoke the court’s jurisdiction.
Commenting on how fundamental the error was, particularly given the stature of the lawyer and politician involved, Mr Kpebu said procedural mistakes were not uncommon in legal practice.
“I would say that kind of mistake is not strange. It happens from time to time. And if we had time, I would go into details. I’ll tell you mistakes that we all make from time to time as lawyers,” he said.
He explained that the numerous procedural rules governing court proceedings meant lawyers could occasionally breach one rule or another, resulting in a case being thrown out.
Mr Kpebu, however, said the more important consideration was the need for the parties to find an alternative to further litigation.
He cited the position of Mr Gyamfi’s lawyers, who had encouraged the parties to resolve the dispute without returning to court, and called for mediation to help bring the matter to an end.
Mr Kpebu also acknowledged that procedural errors in legal cases could sometimes be deliberate, but stressed that there was no evidence to suggest that was the case in the dispute between Mr Afenyo-Markin and Mr Gyamfi.
Responding to a question about whether the error that led to the dismissal could have been intentional, he said deliberate mistakes were possible in legal practice but cautioned against drawing conclusions without evidence.
“Yes, you can take that out of the equation. Yes, sometimes mistakes are deliberate. It happens,” he said.
He was quick to clarify, however, that he was not accusing Mr Afenyo-Markin or his lawyers of deliberately making the error.
“And to be very, very clear, we have no evidence, and no evidence has been adduced, that in this case, the error was deliberate,” he added.
Mr Kpebu said there were instances in which people speculated that a lawyer might deliberately make a procedural mistake to get a case dismissed and then attribute the outcome to the court.
The High Court’s ruling ended proceedings under the defective writ but did not determine whether the statements complained of were defamatory. The dismissal was based on procedural defects rather than the substantive merits of the claim.