The Nation Newspaper

Tag: libel

  • Libel: Oshiomhole loses bid to stop Ortom’s suit

    A Makurdi High Court in Benue State, presided over by Justice Augustine Ityonyiman, has dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and the party in a N10 billion defamation suit filed against them by Governor Samuel Ortom.

    When the matter came up yesterday, counsel to Oshiomhole and the APC, Mr Damian Dodo, urged the court to dismiss the suit.

    The lawyer said the leave of court was not sought before service was done outside its jurisdiction.

    But Ortom’s lawyer Samuel Irabor, who filed a counter-affidavit and written address against the preliminary objection, told the court that the objections of the APC National Chairman was lacking in merit.

    He averred that the leave was granted by the High Court on August 24, last year.

    The lawyer argued that the requirement for leave was alien to the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act, 2004 and the Benue State High Court Civil Procedure Rules, 2009.

    According to him, it was only required in matters filed at the Federal High Court.

    Justice Ityonyiman held that the defendants, having filed a defence on the merit, were deemed to have joined issues with the plaintiff and consequently waived their right of objection.

    He dismissed the preliminary objections by Oshiomhole and the APC.

    The judge adjourned the matter till February 28 for hearing.

    Ortom averred, among other things, that Oshiomhole allegedly damaged his character and reputation when, at an APC media briefing on July 27, last year, the APC chairman accused him of having a hand in the death of two Catholic priests and other parishioners at Mbalom community.

    The governor said Oshiomhole allegedly premised his accusation on the ground that one of the priests had preached a “very critical sermon” against the governor.

    Some of the reliefs the governor is seeking against Oshiomhole include “a declaration by the court that the defendants’ allegations and publication of July 27 against him are false, mischievous, unsubstantiated, defamatory and libellous”.

    Others are: “An order directing the defendants to publish simultaneous retractions/apologies in respect of the said libellous publication against him in the Sunday editions of 10 national dailies circulating within Benue State as well as paid advertorials to the same effect on the prime time beats of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Channels TV, TVC News, African Independent Television (AIT), Independent Television (ITV), Benin, Radio Nigeria, Radio Benue and Harvest FM.

    “An Order of Perpetual Injunction restraining the Defendants, their officers, privies, assigns, surrogates or agents whosoever called from further defaming and libelling the Plaintiff’s character and reputation and any other order(s) that the Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.”

     

     

     

  • Libel: MFM sues Sowore, Sahara Reporters

    The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) has filed a suit against Sahara Reporters, an online media platform, its publisher Omoyele Sowore and Sahara Reporters Media Foundation over a series of alleged false, malicious and defamatory publications against the church and its General Overseer, Dr. Daniel Olukoya.

    In the suit No HU/250/2018 pending before the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo Judicial Division, the claimants are demanding N10bn as damages and retraction of the publications.

    The retraction, according to the church, should be a written apology in Sahara Reporters online platform, three nationally circulating newspapers and two internationally circulating magazines, one of which must be the TIME International.

    The MFM also requested the court to direct Sahara Reporters to pull down and erase from the world-wide-web each of the offending stories published between 2013 and June 30th, 2018.

    In addition, the claimants demanded perpetual injunction restraining the “defendants by themselves, their agents, servants, privies or other persons howsoever called or described from further publishing and disseminating libelous stories and statements against the Claimants or any of them.”

    The Counsel, Barr. Ime Asanga said the church was constrained to take legal action following the intransigence of Omoleye Soleye and his co-defendants in refusing to desist from publishing false and malicious articles against the MFM over the stated period.

    Asanga also disclosed that the defendants turned down the opportunity for a peaceful resolution when they failed to take advantage of a seven-day window offered them to retract the offending publications.

  • Court orders substituted service of N50m libel processes

    Court orders substituted service of N50m libel processes

    A Lagos High Court has directed that processes in a N50million libel suit be sent to the  defendant through substituted service.

    An accountant, Adelani Afolabi, filed the suit against the Queens College  Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Chairman John Ofobike and 11 others.

    The others are: Vice Chairman, Yetunde Shittu; probe panel chairman, Tajudeen Oyekunle Amodu and PTA members  Victor Onukwe, Eyilayo Amodi, Catherine Temitope Nwadu, Martha Ezeh Nwafor,  Kingsley Okori, Oladejo Sarafadeen Abiodun, Okeke Chinyere Eucharia, Charles Amadi and the PTA’s incorporated trustees.

    According to his November 17, 2017 statement of claim, Afolabi averred that he and members of the exexcutive in which he served between 2013 and 2016 were witch-hunted and defamed by a probe panel consisting of the third to 10th defendants.

    He said: “I was invited by the probe panel but was not allowed to offer any meaningful explanation as to my roles as the treasurer between 2013 and 2016.

    “On July 9, 2017 at the Annual General Meeting of the PTA of Queen’s College, the report of the said probe panel was circulated among dignitaries and parents where I was personally defamed and described as fraudulent by the defendants.

    “After the said publication, I forwarded a comprehensive report of the financial activities of tenure under review to the Chairman of the Fact finding Committee, who is third defendants in this suit and asked him to publish a retraction.”

    Afolabi said contrary to the committee’s allegation that there was no proper documentation of the activities of their tenure, proper records were kept.

    According to him, the administration under which he served built and bequeathed to Queen’s College, a world-class hostel “which no individual, administration and/or government in history has ever built.”

    He listed other feats by the administration including the construction of VIP toilets and purchase of three buses to ease transportation problems of the Queen’s College.

    Aside a claim for N50m as damages for emotional distress and loss of professional goodwill allegedly caused by the defendants’ action, the claimant is seeking three other reliefs.

    They include: “An order directing the defendants to jointly and severally write a letter of apology to the claimant in respect of the misleading publication.

    “An directing the defendants to jointly and severally publish in two reputable-newspapers a public apology and retraction regarding the personality of the claimant.”

    The defendants are yet to file their defence.

    At the commencement of proceedings yesterday, neither the defendants nor their counsel were present.

    Igbayiola told Justice Ibironke Harrison that seven of the defendants appeared to be evading service.

    He said: “We’ve been able to serve the first, second, third, ninth and 10th defendants. We have not been able to serve the others.”

    He prayed the court to allow him make one more attempt to serve the defendants following which an application would be brought for substituted service.

    Igbayiola said: “We intend to come under Order 7 of the Lagos State Civil Procedure Rules 2012 for an application for substituted service.”

    Granting his prayer, Justice Harrison adjourned till March 28, for further directions.

  • Detained journalists charged with libel, computer misuse

    Detained journalists charged with libel, computer misuse

    Uganda has charged eight managers and editors of a daily newspaper with several offences including libel and computer misuse and a court ordered them detained until Dec. 5.

    The journalists have been in detention for nearly a week after police raided the premises of “Red Pepper” accusing them of publishing a false story.

    Police had said on Nov. 23 that they had preferred several charges including treason against the journalists.

    Their lawyer, Maxma Mutabingwa, said that when they appeared in court for the first time on Monday, treason was not among the offences read out to them.

    Instead they were charged with several counts of libel, offensive communication and publication of information prejudicial to security.

    “I think police backed off the treason charge because it was ridiculous, it was not sustainable at all,” he told Reuters.

    The journalists applied for bail but the state prosecutor said he needed time to respond and court adjourned the proceedings to Dec. 5.

    The raid on the paper followed publication of a story that, citing unnamed sources, said that Rwanda believed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was plotting to oust its leader, Paul Kagame.

    The paper has a wide readership and often regales its audience with a surfeit of salacious content about private lives of political and business officials and celebrities.

    In recent years it has moved to include more political coverage and has some times irked authorities with audacious headlines on security, diplomacy and power manoeuvres in the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

    Police has kept the media outlet’s premises cordoned off.

    Mutabingwa said it has not published the daily since the raid. Computers, phones and other equipment confiscated during the search have also not been returned.

    Rights groups and journalists have complained of escalating harassment and intimidation of independent media by security personnel in the East African country especially as Museveni faces growing opposition pressure to end his rule.

    Local media, including Red Pepper, have reported this month on tensions between Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda over a range of economic and security disputes but Uganda’s foreign affairs ministry has dismissed the reports as rumours.

    Read Also: Journalists urged to embrace immersive storytelling with multimedia devices

     

  • Court orders publisher to pay Ortom N5m for libel on facebook

    Court orders publisher to pay Ortom N5m for libel on facebook

    A Makurdi High Court presided over by Justice Adam Onum has ordered the publisher of Nigerian Concord, Mr Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi to pay N5 million to  Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, as damages for libel.

    Delivering judgement in a case instituted by the Governor, Justice Onum also ordered the publisher to retract the libelous publications in national newspapers, television, radio as well as social media platforms.

    The Governor had demanded N10 billion for damages.

    Speaking with newsmen after the judgement, the Governor’s lawyer, Mr Andrew Wombo, expressed satisfaction with the judgment and pledged that he would take legal steps to enforce it.

    He stated that the objective of the case was to prove to the entire world that Mr Oluwarotimi’s publications against the office and person of the Governor were false, fabricated and mischievous.

    Barrister Wombo stated that although the motive for instituting the case were not for financial benefit, he would make sure the defendant pays the money as a deterrent against those bent on publishing falsehood against the Governor.

    Throughout the proceedings Mr Oluwarotimi failed to appear in court and was not represented by any defence counsel.

    Court processes were however served on him through substituted means in Daily Trust, The Nation newspapers as well as on his Facebook page.

    Read Also: Dickson consoles Tinubu over son’s death   

     

  • Court orders Tsav to pay N10m for libel

    A Makurdi High Court, presided over by Justice Maurice Ikpambese, has ordered Alhaji Abubakar Tsav and the a newspaper to pay N10 million, jointly and severally, as damages to Governor Samuel Ortom’s aide, Mr. Abrahams Kwaghngu, for libel.

    They were also ordered to publish a retraction of the defamatory publication in three dailies, as well as a paid advertorial on the prime beat of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Radio Benue, and Harvest FM.

    Mr. Kwaghngu instituted a suit against Tsav and the newspaper, for describing him as a “killer, thug, and vandal”, who killed Hausa and Kabawa people during a 2013 crisis in Gbajimba.

    He was also accused of destroying their property, as contained in a story published in the Pilot Newspaper of August 31, 2015.

    Justice Ikpambese said: “Considering the falsity of the story, the first defendant had no moral, social or legal interest or duty to have published it.

    “It is an abuse of powers for the first defendant to enlarge his coast by renewing and wading into Gbajimba crisis, when he found nothing against the plaintiff during the Gen. Atom Kpera-led panel.”

    Mr. Kwaghngu was happy that the court restored his dignity. He said it was sad that a man, old enough to be his father, tried to tarnish his image.

  • Libel: Court awards N10m to ex-council chair

    An Ikeja High Court in Lagos has awarded N10 million damages against Paradigm Communications Limited, publishers of National Daily, for libelling a former council chairman Afeez Ipesa-Balogun.

    Justice Lateef Abisola Okunnu held that the publication was libellous.

    “There had, indeed, been a false, libelous publication made by the first defendant to defame the claimant in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public,” she held.

    Ipesa-Balogun, in December 2010, sued over the story published on November 27 and 28, 2010, with the headline: Incredible! Chairman Milks LG Dry, How He Blows Billions on Private Assets, Houses…in Nigeria, U… Allegation is Self-Deceiving – Council Boss … EFCC Probe Imminent’’

    The claimant complained that the publication was false and libelous and had defamed him in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public.

    The judge consequently ordered that Paradigm Communications pays N10 million as damages to the former council Chairman for the wrong done to him by the publication.

    He made a perpetual order of injunction restraining it from further publishing the offending article and a further N250,000 award against it to Ipesa-Balogun to defray the cost of legal services incurred by him in prosecuting the case.

  • Alleged libel: Ex-minister sues bank for N100b

    Alleged libel: Ex-minister sues bank for N100b

    Former Water Resources Minister and former President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua has sued one of his bankers, Unity Bank Plc, for allegedly defaming him.

    In the suit filed with his company, Bulet International Nigeria Limited, before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, the plaintiffs accused the bank, among others, of publishing false information about them.

    They stated in a supporting affidavit that the bank in 2013, initiated a debt recovery proceeding against Bulet International before the FCT High Court.

    The suit was dismissed on February 24, 2014 for lack of reasonable cause of action.

    The plaintiffs said before the suit was dismissed, Unity Bank, acting through its lawyer, I. H. Yamah  allegedly wrote to Bulets’ tenants and clients , including the Federal Ministry of Finance, CBN, Australian and American embassies as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conveying an auction sale notice.

    The notice threatened to sell the property being occupied by the tenants.

    Unity Bank was said to have alleged in the letters that the plaintiffs owed it N6.856 billion and that the bank was in possession of perfected legal mortgage over the landed property occupied by the tenants.

    The bank allegedly warned them not to have any commitments to their landlord.

    The plaintiffs stated that the bank sued them again this year and that they have challenged the legality of the suit on the grounds that it failed to disclose reasonable cause of action.

    They added that ruling had been fixed for February 2015.

    The plaintiffs further stated that while parties awaiting the ruling fixed for February, the bank proceeded to publish public notices and articles in numerous newspapers as well as on its Internet outlets specifically addressed to the CBN, containing list of its alleged debtors. One of the plaintiffs, Bulet, was allegedly listed.

    According to the plaintiffs, the letters, newspaper reports and public notices by the bank meant that the plaintiffs are bankrupt and irresponsible and took bank credit with intent to defraud the bank.

    The plaintiffs said the letters and public notices were understood by the public that Unity Bank gave them N6.8 billion credit facilities and was in custody of perfected mortgage instruments, which exposed the plaintiffs’ tenants to auction sale of their home and offices.

    They denied that the bank granted them N6.8b loan, describing the allegation by the bank as baseless and an attempt to damage their reputation.

  • Court orders firm to pay ex-NMA chair N10m for libel

    Court orders firm to pay ex-NMA chair N10m for libel

    A Lagos High Court in Ikeja has awarded N10 million damages against officials of an auditing firm, Kunle Ladejobi & Co (LK &Co), having found them guilty of libel.

    Justice Yetunde Idowu held in her judgment in a suit by the former chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos branch, Dr. Hakim Akinlade that Kunle Ladejobi, M.A. Abdullahi and Mrs. Tola Gbogboade defamed the plaintiff in a letter dated February 14, 2008 and are guilty of libel.

    The judge declared that the audited account of the association for 2006-2007 circulated at its Annual General Meeting of 2008 was not forged by the plaintiff as alleged by the defendants.

    She held that the audited account was prepared by the firm of the defendants – KL & Co.

    Justice Idowu ordered Ladejobi, Abdullahi and Gbogboade to make a rejoinder of the libellous publication, circulate and publicise it in the same manner the earlier offensive publication was publicised.