By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has adjourned Sine Dine the N200 billion libel suit filed by the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, against Yinka Aiyefele Limited, owner of Internet Fresh FM 105.9 Radio Station.
At the hearing of the libel suit on July 14, 2022, Barristers A. Adesanya (SAN) with A. Adetola and M. A. Atanda represented the claimant, while Chief Yomi Alliyu SAN and Dipo Olasope (SAN) with Thelma Otaigbe-Oluleye and Adeyemi Omoniyi were for the defendant.
The defendant filed four processes before the court which are, application to join the presenter and the guest as 3rd parties; Notice of Appeal on the previous ruling of the court on preliminary objection that the case does not disclose any cause of action known to law; thirdly, leave to appeal and finally motion for stay of proceedings.
The claimant’s counsel consented to all except the application for stay of proceedings, however, the court did not allow the three motions consented to by the claimant to be moved.
Justice Olusola Adetujoye then adjourned hearing of the suit sine dine when counsels could not agree on a date.
In his 11-paragraph statement of claim, Oba Adetona is seeking N200bn as compensation for damages for alleged libel contained in a radio programme titled, “Talk Your Own with Chikito Duru” allegedly written and published by the defendant on its Fresh FM 105.9 Ibadan on December 22, 2019.
It was said to be simultaneously transmitted and stored in its news server from December 22, 2019 daily till September 4, 2020 via internet website with address www.facebook.comfreshfmibadan videos on behalf of the defendant.
The monarch is also seeking an order of injunction restraining the defendant by itself, servants, agents or otherwise from further publishing or causing to be published the same or similar defamatory words of or concerning the claimant and cost of the suit.
Barrister Ayanlaja, (SAN) said the words used on the radio programme referred and were understood to refer to the claimant in their natural and ordinary meaning and were calculated to disparage the claimant in his status as a person of global repute and in his office as the Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland and that the claimant had also been injured in his credit, character and reputation and lowered in his estimation in the mind of right thinking members of the society and hurt in his feelings, adding that the defendant was aware that the said words were defamatory and are untrue, since it was alleged to have occurred in 1984.
He alleged that the defendant was reckless to check whether or not the publication was true, but blinded by the prospect of the material advantage of using the person and office of the claimant to attract more listeners to its programmes, saying, ” the
claimant’s reputation and integrity have been damaged by the false publication as people who held the claimant in high esteem have been made to doubt his honour and even expressed their doubts to his face by asking why he raised a heinous curse on the Ijebus and the Nigerian nation and which curse has brought destruction and economic calamity to Ijebuland and the Nigerian nation at large.”
The monarch averred that sometime between January and May 2020, he received various phone calls from some of his subjects in Nigeria and in the Diaspora that some negative stories were trending on the website of the defendant and that on August 10, 2020, the claimant through his counsel, wrote to the defendant for an apology, the retraction of the libelous publication, that same be completely removed from the internet radio server programme of the defendant and payment of damages and that the defendant refused, neglected to respond to the claimant’s letter but rather sent a delegation on August 20, 2020 to the chambers of the solicitor to the claimant with entreaties adding, the defendant thereafter on September 4, 2020 removed the internet radio publication from its server after trending for over eight months.
Oba Adetona contended that contrary to the broadcast on the radio station of the defendant, there was no time that he pronounced a curse on Ijebuland and that the buildings at the company were intact as there was no fire outbreak at the site, saying one of his chiefs, Dr. Fassy Yusuf, had sometime in May 2020, first called his attention to the programme about his person and office as the Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebuland.
The Defendant’s counsel Chief Yomi Alliyu SAN filed a Statement of Defence on 12th March, 2021, putting up the defence of qualified privilege stating that it was a life program with the name of the presenter stated as “Talk Your Own With Chikito Duru,” thereby making the station innocent disseminator of the alleged libel. In paragraph 15 of the said defence the Defendant apologised to the Claimant stating thereat that, ” the Defendant having brought down the programme complained against by the Claimant from the Facebook and having apologised profusely in the same mode of broadcast and on record in this Court is no longer in a position to repeat the words complained of and/or similar words in future and hereby further apologise as it has no reason to ridicule the Claimant and/or expose him to public odium or lower Kabiyesi’s reputation by the right thinking members of the society and has no malice, real and/or technical, against the Claimant who is held in high esteem by members of the society including all members of staff and management of the Defendant whose actions throughout was to inform Ijebu sons and daughters interested in the development of their land to approach the Claimant to remove any curse, if any, leading to the departure in droves by companies hitherto operating in their land and the Defendant received favourable response from Ijebu listeners of the programme. “
