A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court has thrown out a libel suit filed against Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), by Olanrewaju Suraju, chairman of the HEDA Resource Centre.
In February 2021, Adoke had sent a petition to the inspector
general of police (IGP), alleging forgery of an email and stage-managing of a
phone conversation which he said were meant to implicate him in the OPL 245
criminal trial in Italy and civil proceedings in the UK.
After investigations, police indicted Suraju of circulating
the false information against Adoke on social media and recommended to the
director of public prosecution to charge the anti-corruption activist to court
for alleged cyber crime.
He was subsequently charged to court but the case was
terminated on the orders of Abubakar Malami, then AGF, in April 2022 because of
the civil proceedings in the UK in which Nigeria was relying on the same
materials to prove its case.
However, before Suraju was charged to court in February
2022, he had instituted a libel action against Adoke over the publication of
his petition to the IGP by the media. Suraju demanded N100 million in damages.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Babangida Hassan, the
presiding judge, dismissed the suit, declaring that Suraju failed to prove his
allegation of defamation.
The petition, which was Suraju’s main evidence, did not
contain his name and could therefore not have defamed him, the court
determined.
Among other things, the court also found that the webpage of
Premium Times presented to the court by Suraju does not contain an
acknowledgement copy of Adoke’s petition to the IGP and could not be cited as
proof of publication by the defendant — a necessary ingredient of defamation.
The court ruled that the absence of critical proofs — such
as the email in dispute — was fatal to the Suraju’s claims, maintaining that
sending a petition to the police cannot in itself constitute defamation as it
is the right of a citizen to do so.
Suraju had presented Adoke’s petition to the police as
exhibit A1, but the court ruled that his name did not appear anywhere in the
petition and cannot therefore be a proof of libel.
The court concluded that Suraju’s evidence had been
successfully challenged and contradicted in court and it is “hence not worthy
of acceptance”.
Adoke did not put up a defence during hearing, arguing that
the fundamental case of defamation had not been established by Suraju and there
was nothing for him to defend.
In dismissing the suit, the court agreed that there was
nothing for Adoke to defend as there was no evidence to prove that the
certified true copy of the petition was read by a third party — which is a key
factor in defamation.
The judge did not award any costs after dismissing the suit.
A STRING OF LOSSES
Nigeria lost all the cases on the OPL 245 transaction as one
court after the other ruled that there was no evidence that the country was
short-changed.
Although Adoke was not a party to the cases in Italy and the
UK, his name featured prominently in the hearings but he denied all allegations
of corruption.
He said an email was forged and a telephone interview was
stage-managed featuring someone pretending to be him just to indict him.
He asked the police to investigate the source of the
forgeries, after which Suraju was indicted by the police.
Adoke also won the cases filed against him in Nigeria by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Two Milan prosecutors were jailed by an Italian court for
forgery and for withholding vital information that would have vindicated the
accused in the OPL 245 trial.
The prosecutors – Fabio De Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro –
were accused of failing in their legal obligation to submit evidence favourable
to the defence during the trial.
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