On August 24, 2026, the Minority Leader in the Ghanaian Parliament and Member of Parliament for Effutu, Osahen Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, formally initiated high-profile legal proceedings against the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Samuel Adu Gyamfi (popularly known as Sammy Gyamfi), along with political commentator Eric Adjei and two major national media organizations: Multimedia Group Limited (operators of JoyNews) and Peace FM.
The lawsuits were filed across two judicial tiers—the Accra High Court and the Achimota Circuit Court—in response to public accusations characterizing the Minority Leader as an “extortionist” who allegedly leveraged parliamentary oversight and statutory Right to Information (RTI) requests to solicit financial favors and blackmail public institutions.
The conflict emerged from an intense, multi-week political dispute concerning the financial management of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP). Financial disclosures and international reporting had highlighted reported losses amounting to approximately US$1.7 billion (GH¢22 billion) incurred under the gold purchase framework in 2025.
As the parliamentary Minority Caucus pressed for institutional accountability, the debate escalated from technical balance-sheet scrutiny into personal accusations of criminal extortion, triggering civil litigation, public petitions, and preliminary assessments by state anti-corruption bodies.
In his August 22 JoyNews appearance, Gyamfi explicitly dared Afenyo-Markin to file a defamation lawsuit, asserting that he possessed unreleased context regarding private interactions that supported his statements. Gyamfi maintained that his characterization was factually grounded and offered to engage in a joint broadcast debate to air the matter publicly.Â
During his address to Parliament, Afenyo-Markin reaffirmed his confidence in the judicial system, emphasizing that he chose the rule of law to defend his reputation and inviting any party possessing evidence of extortion to submit it directly to law enforcement authorities