Media mogul and Chairman Emeritus
of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi has instituted N5billion
defamation suit against the Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, following the inclusion of his name in the list of treasury looters.
Dokpesi, in the suit he filed
before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, said his reputation was
seriously injured following Mohammed’s portrayal of him as “a corrupt and
crooked person, a dishonest man and a thief”.
He added that he has suffered
considerable distress, odium, obloquy, ridicule, as well as political analysis
in the media, castigating him on the basis of the inclusion of his name as
number four on the looters’ list.
The Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was cited as the 2nd
defendant in the suit marked CV/1650/18, which the plaintiff filed through his
lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.
Aside demanding N5bn as damages
for libel, the plaintiff further prayed the court to order the defendants to
publish a full retraction and apology to him in all the major electronic and
print media outlets in the country.
He equally applied for a
perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, whether by themselves, their
servants, agents, partners, representatives, privies and/or otherwise howsoever,
from further writing, publishing, speaking or cause to be written, published or
spoken, the said words complained of or any word to the like effect, which are
similarly defamatory to the plaintiff.
More so, he asked the court to
compel the defendants to pay N50million to cover cost of the litigation.
In his Statement of Claim,
Dokpesi insisted that he had a sterling career in the public public sector and
in business, adding that he has been considered for several national
assignments and held several professional positions.
He said the 1st defendant,
Mohammed, had in the controversial statement “that went viral on social media”,
painted a picture of him as a person “unfit to hold any public office, a man of
unconscionable and questionable character, incapable of being trusted with
public funds, wicked, selfish, inhuman and uninterested in the plight of
suffering Nigerians”.
As well as a man that lacks
integrity and worth.
“Further and by way of innuendos,
the defamatory words complained of above and used by the Defendants also meant
and were understood to mean that the plaintiff is a hypocrite”.
Dokpesi decried that Lai
Mohammed’s statement was carefully schemed and embarked upon as a way of
vendetta to denigrate, disgrace, embarrass, humiliate and subject him to
inhuman and degrading treatment before right thinking members of the society.
He told the court that many
people both within and outside the country called and expressed their
dissapointment that they never knew he was a man of dubious character, adding
that most of his friends, family members and professional colleagues have been
avoiding him as they now see him as a dishonest man.
Besides, Dokpesi told the court
based on Mohammed’s “reckless” and “malicious” statement, the United States
Embassy, via a letter dated March 16, revoked his visa.
He alleged that FG had before the
looters’ list was released by the 1st defendant, sent same to many foreign
agencies and embassies, “requesting them not to deal with us because we are
looters”.
The plaintiff told the court that
he had earlier pleaded not guilty to Charge No FHC/ABJ/CR/380/2015, even as he
contended that inclusion of his name as one of the looters that received N2.
1billion from office of the then National Security Adviser, compromised his
constitutionally guaranteed right to presumption of innocence.
He said his right to fair hearing
has been violated by the malicious publication he said was tantamount to public
media trial.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed
for hearing of the case.
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