Mr Anthony Lithur, legal counsel for the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has entered appearance in the suit that has been filed against him by his ex-wife, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, praying the court to dismiss her pleadings.
Tony Lithur, as he is popularly known, entered appearance on May 14, 2024 following a defamation suit brought up against him by his ex-wife, who is also a lawyer by profession and had served as Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection, under the erstwhile Mahama Administration.
Mr. Lithur (defendant) is seeking an order to dismiss, strike out or staying Nana Oye’s (plaintiff) writ of summons dated April 25, 2024.
The defendant is coming under Order 11 Rule 18(1)(a) and (d) of Constitutional Instrument (C1) 47, which reads: “(1) The Court may at any stage of the proceedings order any pleading or anything in any pleading to be struck out on the grounds that:
(a) It discloses no reasonable cause of action or defence; or
(b) It is scandalous, frivolous or vexatious;”
He said the plaintiff’s writ of summons and statement of claim does not disclose any reasonable cause of action against him and that the pleadings of the plaintiff are frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court processes.
The General Jurisdiction of the Accra High Court was invited not to only dismiss the suit that is demanding UD$1.5 million damages from him (Tony Lithur) but to also make further orders where it may deem fit.
Tony Lithur and Nana Oye Lithur, as she was then called, went their separate ways after marrying for nearly 30 years.
Nana Oye Lithur has claimed her former identity, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, after the divorce which attracted a lot of media attention.
Although the two are independent of each other, Nana Oye is fighting her ex-husband for allegedly ruining her hard won reputation with his wild claims in the divorce petition dated May 2, 2018.
Tony Lithur had stated in the petition that, his then better half was abusive, aggressive, corrupt and promiscuous.
In the petition, Tony claimed he caught his wife in a tight and intimate embrace with one Kenneth Laryea. He also heard one Samuel Codjoe on phone telling his (Tony Lithur) wife in Ga language, as translated “Oye I love you okay” and one James Yankah, a childhood sweetheart of Nana Oye, who shares the same place as Mr. Cudjoe.
He alleged that Mr. Cudjoe’s wife confronted Nana Oye Lithur on the matter.
Causing bodily and emotional harm to their domestic staff and relatives other than her children in the petition were all made up to destroy her reputation in the eyes of the public.
She said with certainty that her ex-husband has vowed to ruin her reputation, therefore, made those allegations to achieve that.
Currently, Nana Oye is under investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for a claim that after leaving office in 2017, she travelled to South Africa with an intention to purchase investment property, selling between US$350,000 and US$500,000.
According to her, these false allegations have spread like wildfire, as random people, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, relatives and others from the international community throw embarrassing questions and insult at her.
The allegations have also taken a bit of the plaintiff’s life, forcing her to avoid certain public gatherings, as well as quitting lecturing in some tertiary institutions.
She is, therefore, seeking retraction and apology on very medium available to the defendant, perpetual injunction, general damages of US$500,000.00 and exemplary damages of US$1 million.
The post Lithur to court: Nana Oye’s suit is frivolous, dismiss it appeared first on The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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