Court Reserves Judgement In DSS Staff’s N5.5bn Defamation Suit Against SERAP

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, Abuja, has reserved judgement till a date to be communicated to parties, in a N5.5billion defamation suit filed by two operatives of the Department of State Services (DDS) against a civil society organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

Justice Halilu Yusuf made the announcement on Thursday after lawyers to both parties adopted their final written addresses, and made their final submissions in the suit filed by the two officers, Sarah John and Gabriel Ogundele.

Listed with SERAP as defendants in the suit, marked: CV/4547/2024, was its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare.

The claimants, in the suit, accused SERAP of making false claims that John and Ogundele invaded their Abuja office on September 9, 2024.

While adopting the final written address of the claimant on Thursday, their lawyer, Oluwagbemileke Kehinde, urged the court to grant all the reliefs sought by his clients.

Kehinde faulted the competence of the 12-page reply address filed for the second defendant, arguing that it violated Order 39, Rule 2 of the Court’s Rules, which provides that reply address should not exceed 10 pages.

Earlier, lawyer to SERAP, Victoria Bassey, adopted her client’s final address and address on reply on point of law after the court granted her request to deem the addresses deemed improperly filed, having been filed out of time.

Bassey urged the court to dismiss the suit and argued that since the claimants were not specifically named in the publication complained about, they must prove that they were the people referred to in the publication before they could succeed in a defamation suit.

She argued that the claimants failed to establish that they were the subjects of the publication complained about.