An Accra High Court has awarded Yvonne Nelson 500,000 Ghana cedis in a defamation case against Mona Gucci for malicious statements she made about the award-winning actress on an Accra-based radio station.
In addition to paying Yvonne Nelson 500,000 Ghana cedis, the Court presided over by Justice John Eugene Nyante Nyandu, ordered Mona to also apologize for her defamatory publication about the celebrated actress. More so, she has been restrained from making any more defamatory comments about the Princess Tyra actress.
Meanwhile, the defendant, Mona Gucci, who is a socialite and presenter was not in court when the judgement was passed.
In May 2020, Mona in an interview with an Accra-based radio station, named an extensive list of Ghanaian female media and social personalities as “slay queens”.
The “slay queen” term according to her can be equated to a woman of loose morals, who under the cover of legitimacy engages in prostitution and other illicit activities for sustenance.
In the said interview, Mona Gucci boldly mentioned Yvonne Nelson’s name among her list of people she referred to as slay queens.
“Yvonne doesn’t show off, but she is a slay queen… You know the slay queen, it entails a lot, we have both showing off… and people who we know that the things that you do and the lifestyle you exhibit, someone is paying for you behind the scenes”.
Mona Gucci
The statement largely presented Yvonne as someone perverted in a character who engages in immoral and illicit activities, according to reports.
When Yvonne’s counsel wrote to her to retract her malicious statement and apologize, she refused and rather went on a social media outburst, spewing more disparaging comments. In two different posts, Mona Gucci wrote:
“YVONNE NELSON SAYS SHE’S SUING ME IN COURT. SOMEONE SHOULD TELL HER I SAID SHE SHOULD FUCK OFF… YVONNE FUCK THE FUCK OFF!! AND DON’T DISGRACE YOURSELF!”
“FUCK OFF YVONNE, SHUT THE FUCK UP. I won’t FUCKIN APOLOGIZE TO YOU, SO HURRY UP AND LETS FUCKIN MEET IN COURT”.
Mona Gucci
Yvonne then went ahead to take the matter up in court by suing her. However, all the time the case was called, Mona never showed up in court despite her ‘bluff’ on social media.
According to court documents, she was being evasive when she was being served the writ of summons. The document quoted Yvonne’s counsel to have said:
“On the 13th July 2020, the Plaintiff/Applicant herein caused a writ of summons and statement claim to be issued against the defendant praying for the reliefs set out in the statement of claim and the endorsement on the writ of summons. My Lord, it became necessary to serve the processes by substituted service due to the evasiveness of the defendant. That on the 8th June 2021 an order for substituted service was granted.
“That my Lord will notice from the docket that the defendant was served by an Affidavit of Posting dated the 8th of July, 2021. That a search dated 13th of October, 2021 shows that the defendant has made no response to the suit. That accordingly with the rules, we, therefore, pray this court for an order for Judgment in Default of Appearance. Respectfully submitted”.
Court documents
The Court, therefore, granted the application as prayed by Yvonne Nelson’s counsel.
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