Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja yesterday referred the N500 million libel suit filed by Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed against Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman Olisa Metuh to mediation court.
Justice Ipaye ordered the case file to be taken to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Prompt Administrator.
“Now that pleadings have been closed, seven days from today, please head to ADR Centre for mediation of this dispute,” Ipaye ruled.
At the resumed hearing of the matter yesterday, Mr. U. A. Otahine, the counsel to Metuh, told the court that he filed two applications dated April 25.
According to him, the defence in the first application is requesting for an extension of time to file the statement of defence and originating processes.
He said the second application sought an extension of time to file a counter-affidavit
Counsel to the minister urged the court to set the case for trial.
But the trial judge declined his request and said the matter would go first for arbitration.
Mohammed, who was the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had on October 12, 2015, filed a N500 million suit against Metuh for allegedly publishing libelous materials against him.
He alleged that the PDP spokesman falsely accused him of embezzling funds meant to build a fence at an airport in one of the Southwest states under the control of APC.
The publication alleged that Mohammed had obtained funds to supply ambulances to the Southwest state, but failed to do so.
He had demanded a compensation of N500 million on account of the alleged false publications against him.
He sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining Metuh, his cronies or any newspaper/magazine from further publishing or disseminating the libellous materials or something similar, which the court did not grant at previous hearing.