A Kasoa-based trader, Lydia Lartey, who says she was lured into a marriage scam by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Effutu, James Kofi Annan, has dragged him to Court, seeking among other reliefs that he should be made to undergo a mandatory psychiatric examination because his behavior gives her reasons to believe he has psychological challenges.
Lydia Lartey, in her statement of claim, says she and James Kofi Annan have a child together but she wants an order from the court to ensure that he does not come near her and the child within a 400 meters radius unless he undertakes the psychiatric test and has the results.
The baby mama explains in the writ that what informs her to believe that James Kofi Annan is “suffering from a psychiatric condition is his constant loud screams and howling in the night anytime there’s an augment.”
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She claims he sometimes subject her to house imprisonments to the discomforts of everyone in the Plaintiff’s residence.
The baby-mama noted further that the Kofi Annan has a habit that whenever he drives to her residence at Accra, he remains alone in his car locked-up for unreasonably long periods of time before coming out amidst mutters of strange utterances.
The amended statement of claim reads in full:
- The Plaintiff is a trader working in Kasoa in the Central Region of the Republic of Ghana.
- The Defendant describes himself as a journalist, an entrepreneur and a politician.
- Plaintiff avers that she met the Defendant in January 2015 whilst taking her National Service at the Parliamentary Service of Ghana, Accra.
- Plaintiff avers that Defendant proposed an intimate love relationship to her with the promise of marrying her but she refused his proposal.
- The Plaintiff says that after her National Service in July 2015, she had an employment in a reputable company called Talent Microfinance Service Limited in Adabraka, Accra in August, 2015 and worked in the company for six (6) years.
- Plaintiff avers that she got married in 2016 to a third party but the marriage had series of challenges culminating in separation between her and the spouse.
- Plaintiff avers that immediately she got separated from her spouse, the Defendant found his way into her life and continued his promise to marry her and give her a better life.
- Plaintiff avers that Defendant made her even resign from her job with the promise of giving her a permanent job in his business afterwards.
- Plaintiff avers that out of abundance of caution and for lawful enforcement of the Defendant’s set of promises to her, she went into a written agreement with the Defendant over the job he promised her.
- Plaintiff avers that no sooner had she resigned from her job in the year 2021 than the Defendant reneged on his promise to secure her an employment let alone marrying her.
- Plaintiff avers that in the course of her relationship with the Defendant and before her resignation from her job, she was impregnated by the Defendant and the Defendant’s incessant plea to her to keep the pregnancy because he was unmarried and childless made the Plaintiff carry the pregnancy to full term and ultimately gave birth to a son by name Kweku Addo Annan.
- Thereafter the Plaintiff put pressure on the Defendant to perform the marriage rites and it was there and then that the Defendant disclosed to her for the first time that he was already married under the Ordinance and that he only needed the Plaintiff to produce a child for him as his wife was unable to conceive since their marriage.
- Plaintiff avers that upon hearing this, she did her own enquiries into the disclosure and discovered that the Defendant was indeed married to another woman for all this while.
- Plaintiff avers that, upon confronting the Defendant as to why he decided to ruin her life, the Defendant without remorse and unapologetically told her that he needed children from her by virtue of her charm of beauty and nothing more. This the Plaintiff took as a big insult to her dignity and a portrayal of the inner greed and unending selfishness of the Defendant, making it look like the Plaintiff was only rented to produce a child for him.
- Plaintiff avers that the conduct of Defendant has traumatized her and put her to shame within her own family as she has lost trust within her extended family and close friends who thought she was ultimately going to get married to the Defendant.
- Plaintiff says that to make matters worse, the Defendant had started subjecting her to verbal abuse and sometimes physical assault without any provocation. The Plaintiff could not take it anymore and was thus compelled to lodge a complaint with the Dansoman Police Station.
- Plaintiff says that defendant is very erratic, very temperamental and psychologically imbalanced and his actions were found by her to be mostly consistent with a person with psychological challenges.
- What informs the Plaintiff to believe that the Defendant is suffering from a psychiatric condition is his constant loud screams and howling in the night anytime there’s an augment. And sometimes subject Plaintiff to house imprisonments to the discomforts of everyone in the Plaintiff’s residence.
- Also, the Defendant has a habit that whenever he drives to Plaintiff’s residence at Accra, he remains alone in his car locked-up for unreasonably long period of time before coming out amidst mutters of strange utterances.
- Plaintiff says that Defendant’s conduct has injured her reputation and caused grave embarrassment to her since she relied on the Defendant’s promise to marry her to her detriment, particularly making her a social ridicule.
- That the plaintiff considers it appropriate and fitting to be compensated by the Defendant for the injury and damage caused to her career and social aspiration. Yet, the Defendant will not do so unless compelled by the orders of this Honorable Court.
WHEREFORE, Plaintiff claims as follows:
- An order for the Defendant to compensate the Plaintiff an amount of TWO HUNDRED THAOUSND GHANA CEDIS (GH:200,000.00) for the period that the Defendant wasted the Plaintiff’s time and made her have a child with him when he knew he had already contracted a marriage under the Ordinance with someone else and had no intention to marry her as promised
- An order directing Defendant to undergo psychiatric examination and submit the report thereof.
- An order restraining the Defendant to stay a minimum of 40 metres apart from the Plaintiff.
- An order granting access to the Defendant to the child only upon completion of the said psychiatric examination.
- An order directing the Defendant to pay the Plaintiff Three Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 300,000) for loss of earnings
- Costs
DATED THIS 7′” DAY OF OCTOBER , 2024