A Federal Capital Territory High Court has awarded the sum of N4 million against former President Olusegun Obasanjo and its columnist, Sonala Olumhense.
Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi awarded the sum of N2 million to both defendants as the cost of the action.
The former President filed a lawsuit against Punch Newspaper and the columnist for alleged defamation regarding a January 27, 2019 post.
Obasanjo, through his lawyer Kanu Agabi, sought N1 billion in damages from the newspaper and the columnist, describing the article as “false, malicious, unjustified, injurious, scornful, distasteful, and unsavoury”.
Obasanjo said the article exposed him to “public odium, ridicule and disdain.”
A copy of the ruling obtained by the press on Saturday showed that the award followed the application by Obasanjo’s counsel, Emmanuel Bisong Otinyia Esq for the discontinuance of the matter and for it to be struck out.
Following the application by Obasanjo’s lawyer to discontinue the case, counsel for the newspaper and the columnist, R.O. Adakole and Sam Ogala Esq respectively demanded the payment of N3 million as cost for travels from outside court jurisdiction and filing of processes.
The judge ruled that “both counsel have sought a cost of N3 million only each” but awarded the “sum of N2 million only each to the 1st and 2nd defendants as cost of this action”.
In the article, Olumhense wrote: “Obasanjo was no anti-corruption champion either, although nobody harangues corruption better than he”.
“Yes, he launched the EFCC and ICPC, but they fought only the fights he allowed them to and wrote the reports he wanted. His real motivation was the largely retaliatory drive to recover the so-called (Sani) Abacha loot against the man who had thrown him behind bars. At the end, he could not account for the billions of dollars recovered.”
“So abominable was Obasanjo’s performance on electricity that he lavished at least $10 billion he could not justify. The House of Representatives said Obasanjo often paid money to companies that had not cleared space for the projects.”
“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 the practice of persistent parallel spending keeps the money flowing but not project delivery.”
