The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Ismaila Chafe against the judgment of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja, following their defamatory publication against the Founder and General Overseer of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry International in Abuja, Propher Emmanuel Omale.
Omale had on July 24, 2020, filed a defamatory suit marked CV/2290/2022 before the FCT High Court against NAN and Chafe and cited the publication in NAN’s website with libelous headline- “How Magu used Pastor to launder looted founds abroad report”, saying that the story was false, defamatory and injurious to his reputation.
In his judgment delivered on December 8, 2022 over the matter, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that the publication was defamatory in its entirety and directed NAN to pay N100million damages to Omale.
Dissatisfied with the verdict of the lower court, NAN and Chafe filed a Notice of Appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/535/23, asking the appellate court to nullify the judgement of the lower court and quash the damages for lack of merit.
In the court processes made available to journalists on Thursday, NAN and Chafe (the appellants) adopted their brief of argument by their lawyer, T D Agbe, urging the appellate court to uphold their appeal and set aside the verdict of the lower court.
But Omale (the respondent) in his brief of argument filed by his lawyer, Bar Okafor Kanayo, urged the appellate court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the N100million damages awarded by the lower court
At the close of the case, NAN and Chafe filed their final written address and raised several issues while adopting the brief of argument. Omale also filed his final written address and adopted his brief of argument
Three Justices of the Court of Appeal (JCAs), Justice Bilikisu Aliyu, Justice Banjoko and Justice Okon Abang, presided over the matter and heard the arguments by the two parties .
With the adoption of the written addresses, the appellate court consequently reserved its judgment in matter, saying that it would soon communicate the date of the judgment to the parties
It is instructive to note that Omale had before the lower court, called two witnesses and tendered two documents as his evidence in the matter.
In an attempt to prove his case, Omale called two witnesses and tendered two documents as his evidence in the matter, while NAN called Chafe and closed their case.
Omale had urged the court to grant an order compelling NAN to publish a public apology specifically and wholly retracting the libelous article in any three (3) daily newspapers having nationwide circulation in Nigeria and an injunction restraining the electronic medium from further publication of the words complained about by Omale.
The prophet further informed the court that NAN had on July 11, 2020 published a false and malicious article against him on its internet website – www.nannews.ng with the caption “HOW MAGU USED PASTOR TO LAUNDER LOOTED FUNDS ABROAD REPORT”.
In proof of the allegations, Omale called two witnesses — Phrank Shuaibu as PW1 and Pastor Onuh Simeon Peter as PW2 who were led in examination in chief by his lawyer and cross examined by the lawyer to NAN on November 17, 2021.
The witness tendered the two defamatory materials complained of by Omale as Exhibits “A” and “B” and two certificates of compliance as Exhibits “C” and “B”.
But in its defence of the suit on April 11, 2022, Chafe testified on behalf of NAN and during cross-examination by the lawyer to Omale, Chafe could not provide the alleged report he claimed to have sourced his libelous publication from.
Chafe admitted having made the publications (Exhibits “A” and “B”) on July 11, 2020 in the electronic medium. He further admitted during cross- examination that he did not go to Omale to hear his own part of the story as part of the ethics of journalism before making the publication.
