The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has file suit against Pointblank News, an online publication before High Court in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory(FCT) over alleged libel, seeking sum of N100 billion aggravated and exemplary damages from the defendants.
Penpushing reports that, in a writ of summon, Mohammed also asked the court to award another N50 billion general damages against the defendants for alleged libelous publications against him, adding that the defendants exclusively published and widely circulated stories in their medium alleging his involvement in a purported N10 billion fraud scandal.
The controversial Minister argued that the said publication by the organisation against him was untrue, malicious, unfounded and wicked, adding that the publications were deliberately fabricated and concocted to ridicule and bring his person to disrepute.
Penpushing further reports that, the plaintiff declared that he had never been found wanting in character and reputation in all the private and public organisations he had served, stressing that the defendants concocted the false stories to paint him in very bad light, defame him and injure his character and reputation.
The Minister in the writ summon explained that following the said publication, he had been inundated with calls and personal visits from well wishers, friends, admirers, political followers and his political adversaries.
Penpushing also reports that, Mohammed lamented that as a result of the false and offensive publications, he had suffered mental distress and serious injury to his feelings, emphasizing that he was shocked and aggrieved by the publications.
The Minister declared that, in view of the development he contacted his solicitor, Kunle Jalejaye, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to write a letter dated August 5, 2021 to the defendants to retract the libelous stories.
Penpushing reports that, Mohammed added that following the failure of the defendants to retract the false publication, he approached the court to seek redress, and therefore prayed the court to award N50 billion aggravated and exemplary damages against the plaintiffs for libel contained in the publications.
The Minister in the same vein demanded a retraction of the publications and an apology to be published in three national newspapers (hard copy editions), and prayed the court to order the two defendants to respectively write an undertaking to desist from further publication of the defamatory words against him.
Penpushing further reports that defendants to the suit include, Publisher of the online media, Johnson Ude and Editor of the medium Uduma Mba, while it is recalled that that publication said Mohammed was involved in N10billion fraud.
“The defendants made a publication described as ‘Exclusive Pointblanknews.com investigations’ and written under the very bold banner and title: ‘Lai Mohammed in N10 billion Fraud Scandal as ICPC swoops on NBC” which was published on Aug. 3, 2021.
“They published another one tagged as ‘Lai Mohammed, NBC head for showdown over N10 billion Fraud, Minister in Hot Deal with Interpol Most Wanted” publishes on Aug. 11, 2021″, the writ summon said
Penpushing also reports that, as at the time of filing this report, the suit is yet to be assigned to a judge and no date has been fixed for mention.
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