By Ousman Saidykhan
Both parties involved in the $50 million legal suit—Environment Minister Rohey John Manjang and Kebba Ansu Manneh, the chief national correspondent for The Alkamba Times—have requested additional time from the court to finalize discussions regarding an out-of-court settlement.
The counsel for the plaintiff, M. Drammeh, told the court: “My Lady, the parties have made significant progress towards settling the matter. Unfortunately, we have not been able to conclude certain things.”
He requested that the court adjourn the matter to “a short date” so they could finalize their discussion on settling it.
“I can confirm we have been talking. We are almost at an advanced stage…We will be truly grateful if my Lady gives us a short date so that we can deal with this matter…,” said Counsel J Jobarteh, the defendant’s lawyer.
Although the judge told the parties on November 12 that the matter would proceed if they did not reach an agreement by the adjourned date, December 12, Justice Akinbiyi has granted their adjournment request for another month.
“In the manifest interest of justice, this matter is adjourned to January 14, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. for further report on settlement,” the judge said.
The plaintiff, Rohey John Manjang, claims Kebba Ansu Manneh wrote an article that contained “malicious and unfounded allegations” about her. She is seeking the court to order the defendant to write and publish an “unreserved apology” on the TAT website and other platforms where the article was published, in addition to a 50-million-dalasi compensation.
Minister Manjang is also asking the court to order the defendant to remove from social media platforms all statements about the plaintiff’s alleged defamation and to grant a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendant from making any further defamatory statement against her, indirectly or through his agents, associates, and contacts.
TAT and its Senior Investigative Reporter stand by the published article and refuse to retract or apologize to the Minister of Environment, Rohey John Manjang.
