The acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Antertey Abbey, has sued the Bono regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, also known as Abronye, for defamation.
The lawsuit, filed at an Accra High Court on August 26, 2025, demands GH¢20 million in damages.
According to a Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim, Abronye, who is also the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and operates the online television station OHIA TV, made a series of false and defamatory statements against Dr. Abbey in a broadcast on August 23, 2025.
Dr. Randy Abbey, through his lawyers, claims that these statements have severely injured his reputation and brought him into public scandal, odium, and contempt.
The Statement of Claim details the specific Twi and English statements made by the defendant.
The core of the accusations, as translated in the document, alleges that Dr. Abbey is a “proud and arrogant person” who, when visiting cocoa farms, brings his own chair in a separate Land Cruiser at the expense of poor cocoa farmers whose money is used to buy fuel for these vehicles. More gravely, the defendant is alleged to have accused Dr. Abbey of being a thief who has appointed a new Director of Finance with the intention of “stealing money from the Ghana Cocoa Board to the detriment of the poor cocoa farmer.”
Dr. Abbey, who also serves as the Executive Council Member of the Ghana Football Association and is the President of Hearts of Lions FC, vehemently denies these allegations.
He contends that by virtue of his twenty-year professional career and numerous leadership positions in media, sports, and business, he is a man of high moral character and proven integrity, and not an “embezzler, a dishonest and or fraudulent person and or a thief” as portrayed by Baffoe.
