Bashir Dalhatu, a former minister in the Sani Abacha regime,
yesterday lost a N2.1 billion libel suit he filed against Nuhu Ribadu, a
former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
and DAAR Communications Plc, the parent company of African Independent
Television (AIT).
Mr. Dalhatu had filed the case on February 7, 2007 claiming that the
former EFCC boss had defamed him by stating that he had stolen public
funds. AIT, which was initially sued along with Mr. Ribadu, was
subsequently dropped from the case after apologizing to the former
minister. However, Mr. Ribadu had stood his ground, choosing to contest
the case in court.
In the original suit, Mr. Dalhatu asked the court to make several
rulings against Mr. Ribadu, the first defendant. He sought the sum of
one billion naira from Mr. Ribadu as general damages for an alleged
defamatory speech where the former EFCC boss spoke as follows: “I can
name names of lawyers who struggle over 419 cases…Some of these, we have
facts and figures. For example Bashir Dalhatu, he is a lawyer, we have a
case we are investigating. He took fifteen million dollars ($15
million) from the Government of Nigeria. He said he was going to give to
somebody whose ship was destroyed by the Buhari administration for
illegal bunkering. They went and got Babangida to approve and they took
$15 million. The same guy went to a judge, his own classmate, Justice
Auta to give him a court order that we can’t prosecute him. Yes it
happened in our country…”
In addition, the plaintiff has originally demanded that the second
defendant, DAAR Communications, pay him a billion naira as well as
general damages for repeated broadcast of Mr. Ribadu’s words. He then
asked the court to award him an additional sum of one hundred million
naira against the defendants jointly and severally as aggravated and
exemplary damages.
In addition, Mr. Dalhatu sought a court order compelling the
defendants to write and publish a written apology to him in several
Nigerian newspapers, including The Daily Trust, ThisDay and Daily
Leadership along with a broadcast of same on AIT. He had wanted AIT to
broadcast its apology for seven consecutive days in all its news
broadcast.
In the defamation case filed on his behalf by Yunus Usman, Mr.
Dalhatu also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the
defendants from further making or publishing defamatory statements
against him.
The plaintiff stated that Mr. Ribadu made the allegedly libelous
statement while addressing the Nigerian Bar Association in November
2006. Daar Communications Plc, which broadcast the statement, later
settled the case with the plaintiff by apologizing for its broadcast.
But Mr. Ribadu insisted that he was prepared to justify every claim he
made in the statement.
During trial, the Plaintiff gave evidence for himself and also
called four other witnesses. On his part, Mr. Ribadu called an official
of the EFCC to testify on his behalf.
In a verdict delivered on January 29, 2013, the trial judge upheld
the arguments of qualified privilege and justification canvassed by Mr.
Ribadu’s attorney, Femi Falana. The judge held that Mr. Dalhatu was not
defamed having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case.
In particular, the court found that the allegation that Mr. Dalhatu
duped his client was not challenged because evidence was led to show
that even though he collected $15 million from the Federal Government on
behalf of his foreign client he only remitted $6.5 million while the
remaining sum of $8.5 million was not accounted for.
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