ACCRA – Lawyer in private practice and former board chairman of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Gary Nimako Marfo, has filed a defamation action of 10 million Ghana cedis against the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Fourth Estate, an online website operated by MFWA.
According to the writ of summons issued on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, the first defendant in the suit is Seth Bokpe, a journalist who is reportedly associated with the Fourth Estate. The second defendant is Sulemana Braimah, a director of MFWA.
The third and fourth defendants, William Nlanjerbor Jalulah and Philip Teye Agbove, are also named as Journalists who jointly published the defamatory story against the plaintiff, Gary Nimako Marfo. The last defendant in the action is Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
Claims of Fourth Estate
In their 30 September 2025 publication, The Fourth Estate, among others, claimed as follows: “In 2019, the then Director General of the NLA, Kofi Osei Ameyaw, signed a controversial three-year contract with a private company called KGL Technology Limited, to operate the NLA’s 5/90 lottery online via a USSD code (on mobile phone).
“Upon expiration of the contract in 2022, Mr. Awuku and his board renewed the contract with KGL for 10 years. However, before the 10-year period expired in 2024, Mr. Awuku and his Board, chaired by Gary Nimako Marfo, signed a new contract with KGL, granting the company exclusive rights to operate the 5/90 lottery online via USSD.
“This new contract was not for five years, not 10 years, but 15 years (from 2024 to 2039) with an automatic renewal for another five years. Mr Awuku and his board also signed two other contracts for KGL to operate the 5/90 online lottery in Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.
“These two contracts were also not for one year, not for two years, and not for five years. They were for 10 years each. The Fourth Estate’s investigations revealed that the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery generated annual revenue of over GHC3 billion for KGL in 2024 alone, equivalent to over GHC250 million per month.
“In an interview with the Group Chairman of KGL, Alex Apau Dadey, he confirmed to The Fourth Estate that the company’s 2024 revenue from the NLA’s 5/90 online lottery was over GHC3 billion.
“Under the contracts, however, KGL was supposed to pay a total of just GHC157.6 million to NLA in 2024, for all three contracts. This amount was to be increased annually by just 10% each year. The amount that was to be paid in 2024 represented a paltry 5.2% of the revenue KGL generated from the NLA’s prime business.”
Contention of Plaintiff
In his statement of case filed in addition to the writ of summons, Gary contended that the publication by the Fourth Estate is defamatory of him and that the publication had no basis.
“The Plaintiff (Gary Nimako Marfo) understands the banner headline “Lottery Bonanza How NLA gave away GHC3 billion prime business in exchange for peanuts” to mean that there was in existence a business opportunity for which NLA could have made GHc3 billion by itself but same was granted to KGL Technologies Ltd for peanuts, a conduct which smacks lack of due diligence on the part of the Plaintiff and the former Board Members.
“The Defendants did not provide any scientific justification for how NLA could have by itself generated GHc 3 billion, but did not do so, and had to grant the said business to KGL Technologies Ltd for peanuts,” the particulars of defamation stated by Mr Nimako Marfo read.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that the technical software was not a software of NLA but was designed by KGL Technologies Ltd, and the concept was sold to NLA for piloting way before the Plaintiff assumed office as Board Chairman.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that if the intention of the publication was bona fide, they ought to have provided an alternative software company with which NLA could have partnered to receive the revenue, which is more than what KGL Technologies Ltd is paying NLA at the moment,” the particulars further read.
Mr Nimako Marfo further indicated that “the Board [of NLA], upon careful deliberation, agreed on fixed quarterly revenue payments with adjustments to guarantee planning of the Authority, since, apart from KGL Technologies Ltd, none of the companies in the lotto space provide huge revenue to the Authority.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that NLA does not own the intellectual property in the software used by KGL Technologies Ltd to operate the 5/90 online lottery.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants knew or ought to have known that NLA did not make any financial contribution to the construction of the software and the engineering technologies associated with it.
The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that prior to KGL Technologies Ltd bringing its own design of software and making a proposal to NLA that the company can assist in increasing the revenue of NLA, NLA, as a corporate body, was not involved in the online lotto business, nor was any company operating on behalf of NLA,” Mr Nimako Marfo noted.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that as part of good corporate governance practice, there was a Board Committee on licensing and compliance chaired by a very senior Solicitor at the office of the Attorney-General, which Committee did a very diligent work on all the licenses referred to the Committee by the Board.
“The Plaintiff avers that the Defendants know or ought to have known that with the caliber of persons on the Board, a lot of due diligence was done by the Board before the approval of all the licenses listed supra.
“The Plaintiff avers that when the 1st Defendant contacted the Plaintiff, he wanted an interview, the Plaintiff informed the 1st Defendant that all the Board Minutes had been duly signed and they were at the Board secretariat, but the Defendants chose not to read or, even if they read, decided not to understand the contents,” the former NLA Board Chair further noted.
Reliefs sought
To this end, Mr. Gary Nimako Marfo is seeking six reliefs from the general jurisdiction of the High Court. First is “a declaration that the publication with the banner headline and the picture of the Plaintiff that “NLA gave away GHC3 billion prime business in exchange for peanuts” is defamatory of the Plaintiff, as the same was made without any basis.
Second, “a declaration that the publication with the banner headline and the picture of the Plaintiff that “NLA gave away GHC3 billion prime business in exchange for peanuts” was ill-motivated and without any cause.
Third, “a declaration that the publication with the banner headline and the picture of the Plaintiff that “NLA gave away GHc 3 billion prime business in exchange for peanuts” was intended to cause public disaffection of the Plaintiff and the former Members of the Board and to reduce their image in the eyes of right-thinking members of society.
Fourth, “an order of Court directed at the Defendants to pay compensatory damages in the sum of Ten Million Ghana cedis (GHe10,000,000.00) to the Plaintiff.
Fifth, “an order of Court directed to the Defendants to apologize and retract the defamatory story published about the Plaintiff in the same prominence given to the defamatory publication, and lastly, costs including legal fees.”
Click on the link below to read the full processes filed in court
Source: asaaseradio.com
