ADOKE WINS AGAIN AS COURT THROWS OUT SURAJU’S LIBEL CASE AGAINST OPL 245
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HOTJIST NEWS
A high court in the Federal Capital Territory dismissed a libel case brought against Mohammed Bello Adoke, who was previously the attorney–general of the federation. The case was filed by Olanrewaju Suraju, the chairman of the HEDA Resource Centre.
In February 2021, Adoke submitted a petition to the inspector general of police, claiming that someone forged an email and arranged a phone call to falsely accuse him in the OPL 245 criminal trial in Italy and in civil court in the UK.
After looking into the case, the police charged Suraju with spreading false information about Adoke on social media and suggested that the director of public prosecution should take the anti–corruption activist to court for suspected cybercrime.
He was subsequently charged to court but the case was terminated on the orders of Abubakar Malami, then AGF, in April 2022 because of the civil proceedings in the UK in which Nigeria was relying on the same materials to prove its case.
However, before Suraju was charged to court in February 2022, he had instituted a libel action against Adoke over the publication of his petition to the IGP by the media. Suraju demanded N100 million in damages.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Babangida Hassan, the presiding judge, dismissed the suit, declaring that Suraju failed to prove his allegation of defamation.
The court said that Suraju’s case failed because there was no important evidence, like the disputed email, to support his claims. They explained that just sending a petition to the police isn’t the same as defamation, because it’s a right given to citizens.
Suraju showed Adoke’s petition to the police as Exhibit A1, but the court found that Adoke’s name wasn’t in the petition, so it couldn’t be used as proof of false statements.
The court decided that Suraju’s evidence was questioned and disagreed with during the trial, so it wasn’t reliable enough to be accepted.
Adoke did not put up a defence during hearing, arguing that the fundamental case of defamation had not been established by Suraju and there was nothing for him to defend.
In dismissing the suit, the court agreed that there was nothing for Adoke to defend as there was no evidence to prove that the certified true copy of the petition was read by a third party — which is a key factor in defamation.
The judge did not award any costs after dismissing the suit.
A STRING OF LOSSES
Nigeria lost all the cases on the OPL 245 transaction as one court after the other ruled that there was no evidence that the country was short-changed.
Although Adoke was not a party to the cases in Italy and the UK, his name featured prominently in the hearings but he denied all allegations of corruption.
He said an email was forged and a telephone interview was stage-managed featuring someone pretending to be him just to indict him.
He asked the police to investigate the source of the forgeries, after which Suraju was indicted by the police.
Adoke also won the cases filed against him in Nigeria by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Two Milan prosecutors were jailed by an Italian court for forgery and for withholding vital information that would have vindicated the accused in the OPL 245 trial.
The prosecutors – Fabio De Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro – were accused of failing in their legal obligation to submit evidence favourable to the defence during the trial.
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