Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State Governor has filed libel suits against a former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, a former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan on new media, Reno Omokri among others.
Others named as defendants in the suits are Thisday newspaper, Daniel Elombah, Elombah Communications, Barrister Joseph Onu and Auta Nyada.
The governor filed the three different suits before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory through his lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN).
He sought a total of N1.5bn as damages in the three suits.
El-Rufai claimed in one of the suits that statements contained in a certain publication titled, ‘El Rufai’s email saying southern women youth corpers are seen as whores,’ by Omokri, which was published by Thisday Newspaper on Sunday June 14, 2020, was injurious to his reputation.
He also noted that the publication was “malicious, unwarranted and defamatory” against him. He sought N500m compensation and an apology to be published in the newspaper in the suit.
In the suit in which he sued Odinkalu as the defendant, Daniel Elombah and Elombah Communications, the governor said a publication titled, ‘Litany of 25 critics who have suffered at El-Rufai’s hands compiled by Chidi Odinkalu,’ which was published on Elombah.com on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, was “malicious, unlawful and without any justification.”
He also sought N500m damages and apology. Another suit filed by the governor relates to a petition which led to his disinvitation to the Nigerian Bar Association’s annual general conference earlier in the year.
The governor stated in the suit that a letter written by Jospen Onu and dated August 19, 2020, titled, ‘Request to withdraw the offer of platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Malam Nasir El Rufai’ addressed to Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi (SAN), in his capacity as the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning of the NBA and copied to Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), as Chairman, Board of Trustee of the NBA and Mr. Olumide Akpata, the then President-Elect of the NBA, and published in the media, was “defamatory and greatly injurious to the reputation of the claimant.”
He also sought an apology and N500m in damages.
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