Ghanaian businessman Ibrahim Mahama has today, 29th May, 2025, taken legal action against Bright Simons, a well-known Vice President at IMANI Africa.
Mahama is accusing Simons of making false statements that have damaged his reputation and that of his company, Engineers and Planners (E&P). He has filed a defamation lawsuit at the Accra High Court, asking for GHS10 million in compensation.
According to court documents, the issue started with an article written by Bright Simons titled “Ghana Provides a Lesson in How Not to Nationalise a Gold Mine.” The article was published on Simons’ personal website on April 19, 2025. On the same day, Simons shared the article on his official X account, where many people saw and reacted to it. By May 8, the post had received over 93,000 views, 250 likes, 98 reposts, 26 comments, and 109 bookmarks.
Mahama and his company say the article wrongly claimed that Engineers and Planners was in financial trouble because of a shutdown at the Damang gold mine. It also accused Mahama of using his political connections for personal gain, since he is the brother of President John Mahama. The article suggested that E&P was getting unfair support from the government.
In their response, Mahama and E&P denied all the claims in the article. They say the information is not true and has no evidence to support it. They also argue that the article has harmed their business by making the company look weak and unreliable to current and future business partners.
Because of this, they are asking the court to:
1. Declare the statements by Simons as defamatory
2. Order Simons to publicly withdraw the statements and apologize
3. Publish the apology on the same platforms and as a full-page ad in the Daily Graphic for six editions over three months
4. Stop Simons from making any further damaging statements about them
5. Award them GHS10 million in general damages
6. Cover their legal fees and grant any other relief the court sees fit.
