By Baba Yusuf
Borno state government has filed a N2 billion libel suit against its former Commissioner for Information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, and a newspaper belonging to him, the National Trail, over a publication it claimed had grossly defamed the reputation of the government and its officials, in addition to attempts to unjustly incite the public against the government to attract breach of public peace.
The government, in a statement, said: “The government is also seeking a court injunction restraining both Bwala and National Trail either by themselves, agents, servants, privies or anybody acting on their behalf, from further publishing any malicious publication against the Borno state government, any of its establishments or its officials pending the hearing and final determination of the suit subjudice before the court among other reliefs sought by the plaintiff. The action was filed pursuant to relevant rules of Borno state High Court 2014.”
It added: “A private legal firm contracted by the state government has written to Mr Bwala and his newspaper, demanding an apology published on the front page of subsequent edition of National Trail which must also be aired on an international network breakfast show of the African Independent Television (AIT) which aired the libelous publication in its newspaper headlines of Monday, June 30, 2014, at about 8am and also on five national newspapers within seven days; failure of which the government will move on to sue both Bwala and his newspaper for a claim of N2 billion as damages.”
In a letter dated July 2, 2014, addressed and dispatched last week to the two defendants, through a registered postal service, principal counsel in the legal firm, Barrister Hussaini Hala, said sacking of Mr Bwala by the Borno state government clearly influenced his paper’s bias and complete fabrication of falsehoods with highly malicious publication.
The lawyer said Bwala and his paper had one week to respond to his letter with publicised apology.
