Emmanuel Ukudolo l Monday, May 06, 2019
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – The All Progressive Congress(APC) today told a Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja why it failed to retract a story published in some national newspapers that described the former National Legal Adviser of the party, Dr. Muiz Banire as a fraudster for alleged fraudulent procurement of court judgement.
Dr. Muiz Banire also served as commissioner for 12 years in Lagos State. Assistant Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr. Adebayo Salami was being led in defence by his lawyer, Olasupo Ojo before Justice Oke- Lawal in the case between Dr. Muiz Banire Vs Otunba Henry Ajomale and ThisDay Newspaper.
The claimaint, Dr. Muiz Banire had in his N500 million suit for defamation averred that Henry Ajomale maligned his reputation in his reaction to the Judgment obtained in respect of primaries conducted in Odi Olowo Local Council Development Area when he said the judgement was obtained by deception.
“It was an ambush. The judge was misled into believing those presented to him as genuine members of the All Progressives Congress have nothing to do with the conduct and organisation of the primaries. Pray, how can the so-called party members brought in as defendants be the same persons disavowing the party’s primaries?
“They were the ones who were served the court processes. Nobody in APC Lagos was served the court processes. They were the plaintiffs and defendants at the same time. Muiz Banire filed the suit by proxy; he also procured the lawyer who ‘defended’ the party. As the Yoruba would say, he invited the thief and also called for law enforcement officers to come and arrest the thief.
“The court process had been on for more than a month, but the party only knew a day before Banire got the judgement.”
Banire said the statement is false as he is not a party to the suit”, Ajomale was reported to have alleged in The Nation, ThisDay and Sunday Telegraph newspapers.
Banire told the court that Ajomale cast aspersion on his personality as “someone who procures judgement by fraud, subverts the course of justice and manipulates the judicial process for ulterior motives. The case was filed by Ekikhalo Chambers, on his behalf.
But in his defence, Adebayo Salami who was also cross examination by counsel to the claimant, Charlse Uwansuyi Edosoma(SAN) explained that his jobs includes writing press statement and doing masters of ceremony on occasions. Salami said the said statement did not emanate from the secretariat of the All Progressive Congress(APC).
According to him, no statement can emanate from the secretariat without his knowledge, adding that he sees the Chairman at least twice a week but may not see him in a week or month if he is out of town. He told the court that his job also includes newspaper reviews with specific reference to his selected newspapers, The Nation Newspaper and Punch Newspapers and that he did not see the offensive publication in the ThisDay Newspaper and Sunday Telegraph. He told the court that the said publication impunged on the character of the former National Legal Adviser, Dr. Muiz Banire who had served in Lagos State as Commissioner for 12 years as a fraudster.
But when When asked why he did not retract the said publication, he said he brought it to the attention of the party chairman when the publication came out but that the chairman denied authorising such a publication and consequently felt it was a none issue, moreso since those involved were party members and that the party has internal mechanism for resolving issues.
“I was outraged, so I investigated it but it never emernated from the chairman. He said he never did it so we felt it was a none issue. It did not come from me and from my office”, he said and that he could not do anything as a junior officer. Besides, he argued that his action was further premised on his understanding that the said publications must have emanated from the social media, and that his party only deals with the traditional media, with zero-tolerance for the social media, which he described as populated by non professionals who are only interested in plajarism.
He also told the court that he was not aware of any move to placate the claimant. “But what I said is that there are mechanism for resolving issues”. Attempt by Charlse Uwansuyi Edosoma(SAN) to tender the APC’s constitution as justification for his arguments that the APC Assistant Secretary ascribed to himself functions of the substantive Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe was overuled by the justice B. A. Oke-Lawal since the document in question was not front loaded based on the Adminstration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State.
Justice B. A. Oke Lawal has adjourned the matter to 15 May, 2019 for continuation of hearing.
