Court declines Obasanjo’s request to relist N1b defamation suit against newspaper

JUSTICE Modupe Osho- Adebiyi of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) High Court, Abuja, has dismissed an application filed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, seeking an order to relist an earlier terminated N1billion defamation suit against Punch newspaper.

The judge while ruling on the application to relist the suit held that the case had earlier been dismissed by the court, which is different from being struck out.

She said she could not exercise her discretion in fa vour of the claimant’s case as it remains dismissed.

On October 19, 2023, a lawyer in Mr Obasanjo’s legal team voluntarily applied to withdraw the N1 billion defamation suit against Punch and Sonala Olumhense as the first and second respondents respectively.

The claimant, Obasanjo had filed suit against the respondents alleging defamation of character over a published article. “In an article in December 2006, I demonstrated that he spent close to N1 trillion on roads. In December 2013, using one of those roads, I explored how persistent parallel spending keeps the money flowing but not project delivery.

“Dissatisfied by the remarks in the article, the former president, through his lawyer, Kanu Agabi, urged the court to declare that the article does not “constitute a valid exercise by the defendants of their freedom of speech and expression,” the 2nd defendant stated.

The claimant also prayed for a perpetual injunction “restraining the defendants their associates, agents, assignees, servants, privies, proxies, allies or anyone howsoever called from further publishing or causing to be published the words complained of or any other defamatory words concerning the claimant.” Obasanjo also prayed the court to issue an order, directing the defendants to retract the “defamatory words via a publication on the front page of two national newspapers within three days from the day of the delivery of the judgment of the court.”

A lawyer in the claimant' s legal team, Bisong Otinya, filed an application for discontinuance of the suit in 2023, more than four years after the commencement of the suit.

Responding to the application, counsel to the defendants, R . O. Adakole and Sam Ogala, respectively, urged the court to a ward them a total of N3 million in costs for the travel and filing of processes they incurred.

They also asked for the suit to be dismissed following its discontinuance by the claimant, which the court agreed to.

Delivering judgment, the judge held: “Having dismissed this suit, it is trite that costs follow events. The case has incurred a lot of costs, and counsel, at times, has had to tra vel from outside jurisdiction to attend court.

“Both counsels have sought a cost of N3m only each, but I hereby award the sum of N2m only each to the 1st and 2nd defendants as cost of this action.”

However, the claimant through his counsel, later returned to the court, applied relisting of the case because the judgment dismissing the initial defamation suit was based on misrepresentation of facts.

The claimant stated that the suit was withdrawn without his ( Mr Obasanjo’s) authorisation, adding that the dispute between parties is yet to be determined on merit.

However, the defendants opposed the application. Their counsel argued that the applicant failed to place materials or sufficient facts to persuade the court to sit on appeal over its decision.

They urged the court to dismiss the application for reli sting ha ving become “functus officio” to entertain the application.

The court therefore upheld the defendants’ arguments and dismissed the application.

The court held that there was nothing to show that the claimant did not instruct the withdra wal of the case.