An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Barrister Joni Icheka, has dragged the Sun Publishing Limited, the Managing-Director, the Editor and one of it’s correspondents in Abuja, Fred Itua to court over alleged libelous publication.
The matter which is pending at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was filed by Barr. Paul Ekwueme of Petphil Associates (Excel Chambers), Abuja.
Specifically, Icheka is claiming that the Sun newspapers news story titled “N7.7bn Fraud: More trouble for Kenny Martin’s as court gives fresh hearing date” injured his reputation, alleging that he was “falsely cited as a co-defendant in the criminal trial, in which he is not a party to”.
He described the said publication as being “libelous and defamatory against him” and prayed for an order directing the defendants to retract the libelous publication and issue a formal apology to be published in three national news papers including the Sun for a continuous period of seven days, retracting the libelous publication”.
In the same vein, the lawyer also asks for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, either by themselves, agents, servants, or otherwise from publishing or causing to be published further defamatory articles against the claimant through the defendants’ print or online platform or by means of any other medium”.
In a 30 paragraphs Statements of Claim by Barrister Ekwueme which was dated 10th October, 2020, the petitioner prayed the court to declare that the defendant’s publication of Tuesday, April 28, 2020, in both the print and online news media is defamatory against his client.
He prayed for N. 5bn jointly and severally as general damages against the defendants and equal amounts against them as exemplary damages.
The claimant insisted that instead of being a co-defendant in a case brought against Chief Kenny Martins and others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he was lawyer to Kenny Martins and that neither Justice Modupe Adebiyi of the FCT High Court nor Justice Talba of the same Court, ever arraigned him on the said charges forming the subject matter of the Sun’s offensive publication.
He stated that by the Sun newspapers publication hard copy and online of April 28, 2020, his client (Icheka) was portrayed as “a high profile fraud that embezzled public funds of monumental scale, forged official documents to perpetuate fraud and manipulates the legal system to evade justice”.
Ekwueme further said that his client being a legal professional in good standing with the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), his reputation had been smeared to the extent that he is being shunned and avoided by right thinking members of the society.
He also said that by the publication, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission where he works, made available to the Board a petition written asking that he be disengaged from work, as a result of the said publication.
“The content of the defendants’ publications are patently false in all its ramifications and libelous against my person and have damaged my hard earned reputation over the years and has resulted in tremendous negative implications towards my family, business and career.
“People now deemed and view me as a dubious person of low integrity and morally bankrupt who should not be trusted by all and sundry, ” Icheka alleged further.
Meanwhile, before instituting the suit, he said all efforts he made through his solicitors to get the Sun newspapers to retract the said publication and offer him apology have failed, saying they have also refused to take the offensive news item off their website.
