The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Wuse, Abuja, on Tuesday overruled the objection of a blogger, Sir Don Ubani, regarding documents sought to be tendered in a N5 billion defamation suit instituted by Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, against him.
Justice N. K. Nwosu-Iheme of the FCT High Court overruled the objection of the blogger’s lawyer, S. M. Oluebube, following submissions by Dr. Sonny Ajala SAN, Otti’s counsel.
Nairametrics reports that the governor, in his writs of summons seen by Nairametrics, prayed the court to direct the defendant to pay the claimant general damages of N5,000,000,000.00 for the alleged loss of reputation, damaged character, tarnished profile as a financial expert, erosion of goodwill, fractured political leadership standing, diminished public esteem, and psychological and emotional trauma suffered by him, allegedly due to the falsehoods and malicious defamatory online news publication titled ‘Governor Alexander Otti Of Abia State Should Be Clapped For’, dated 26-09-2024’, published against him on 26/9/2024 on the defendant’s Facebook Wall, with 6.3K followers, and further republished on the defendant’s blog known as ‘equityreporters.ng’ on the same day.
In the said publication, the blogger is accused of stating that the governor, through his proxies, bought two near-moribund hotels in Umuahia.
The blogger was said to have added, “With what Governor Otti has done at Umuehim, Umuguru, and the two hotels at Umuahia, one doubts if Governor Alexander Otti has not done the greatest.”
Ajala also urged the court to restrain the defendant from further writing and/or syndicating disparaging and false materials against the governor, while ordering the blogger to tender an unreserved apology to the governor in four national dailies.
What transpired in court
At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Ajala presented Architect Uche Uche as the governor’s first prosecution witness.
- Uche Uche adopted his two written depositions as his evidence, further supporting the governor’s position on the alleged libelous online publications by the defendant on his Facebook page and blog.
Ajala sought to tender two documents through the witness as evidence:
- The defendant’s online publication of October 6, 2024, captioned ‘No lawyer from Governor Otti has served Sir Don Ubani any notice’
- ‘Lawyer Counters Blogger’s Claim of not receiving Gov. Otti’s Libel Notice.’
However, the defense counsel raised an objection to the tendering of the two documents, insisting that the claimant failed to front-load the documents alongside his writ of summons.
Ajala, however, urged the court to discountenance the objection, arguing that the two documents sought to be tendered satisfied the settled legal requirements and were relevant to his defamation case.
- He also drew the judge’s attention to Order 7 Rule of the FCT High Court Rules, which stipulates that any such irregularities, like failing to front-load documents, should not stall judicial proceedings in the interest of substantial justice.
What the judge said
- In a bench ruling, Justice Nwosu-Iheme “overruled” the objection of the defense counsel and admitted the two documents in evidence.
- Additionally, the judge directed the senior lawyer to submit to the clerk of the court his list of the documents admitted in evidence in the appropriate order.
- The matter was then adjourned to June 2, 2025, for the continuation of the hearing.
