TANKO, Sesi-Edem Company Sue Blakk Rasta

A legal battle is brewing in the capital as lawyers for Dr. Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple and Sesi-Edem Company Limited have initiated court action against media personality and musician Blakk Rasta known on official document as Abubakar Ahmed, over alleged defamatory remarks.

The lawsuit was necessitated from series of public broadcasts alleged to have scandalised the judiciary and undermined the administration of justice.

According to documents filed before an Accra High Court, the company, together with Dr. Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple, is seeking damages and a retraction over statements they claim have caused significant harm to their reputation and business interests.

According to the motion and its supporting affidavit, the case arises from multiple broadcasts published on the respondent’s media platforms, including his widely followed YouTube channel, in relation to ongoing proceedings involving the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and Dr. Kwamigah-Atokple.

Part of the affidavit in support reads, “I respectfully invite this Honourable Court to take cognisance of the matters set out above in determining the full character and gravity of the contempt, and to give such directions as it considers appropriate in respect of the conduct of EOCO’S legal counsel in these Proceedings. In the premises, I verily believe that the totality of the Contemnor’s conduct as deposed herein constitutes a sustained, deliberate, and public campaign calculated to undermine the authority and dignity of this Honourable Court, to scandalise the administration of justice, and to intimidate officers of the Court, including legal practitioners engaged in these Proceedings”

“The publications are not isolated or incidental commentary but form part of a coordinated narrative of accusation, ridicule, and insinuation, disseminated to a mass audience with the natural tendency to erode public confidence in the judiciary, prejudice ongoing proceedings, and deter counsel from freely and independently discharging their professional duties.1 am accordingly advised and do verily believe that the Respondent is in clear and continuing contempt of this Honourable Court, and that it is in the interest of justice that the Court intervenes to uphold its authority and protect the integrity of its processes by committing the Respondent to prison for contempt, to safeguard the administration of justice”.

The affidavit states that between April 13 and April 28, 2026, the respondent produced at least six broadcasts addressing the case, including issues relating to a court order freezing the applicant’s accounts and a pending motion for stay of execution.

Counsel for the applicants argues that the publications amounted to a sustained and deliberate campaign targeting the court, the presiding judge, Justice Richard Appietu, the parties, and their legal representatives.

The affidavit further cites a separate broadcast in which the respondent made the following remarks:

“Tanko is going to the court, where we all are supposed to get justice ultimately. But again, our courts are seen to have some rodents in there who can just do anything as Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed to us the other day in his exposé… Congratulations for EOCO for not getting frightened or hindered by any court or anything that has to do with the law.”

According to the affidavit, this conduct constitutes the common law offence of scandalising the court, with an additional ground of contempt being the alleged intimidation of officers of the court.

The motion, filed by Mawunyo Kofi Adjaho of Knightscild Chambers, is seeking an order committing the respondent for contempt, as well as any further orders the court may deem appropriate.

The matter is scheduled to be heard at the High Court in Accra in May 2026.