AMPIAH J.: By his writ of summons, the plaintiff claims from the defendants jointly and severally ¢50,000 damages for defamation. The plaintiff, until the termination of his appointment on or about 1 November 1979, was the regional manager of the Food Distribution Corporation at Sunyani in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana.
The first defendant-corporation is the printer of the Ghanaian Times newspaper, a daily Ghanaian publication, and the second defendant is the regional representative of the first defendant-corporation at Sunyani.
On 5 April 1979, the first defendant-corporation is said to have published through its representative, the second defendant, the following statement of and concerning the plaintiff.
“The popular Ananse folk tale ‘You do me, I do you’ is being enacted here by eighteen dismissed workers of the Food Distribution Corporation and the Brong-Ahafo area manager of the corporation, Mr. K. D. Benneh.
The workers had been summarily dismissed, and two others suspended by Mr…