The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Ismaila Chafe against the judgment of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja, following their defamatory publication against the Founder and General Overseer of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry International in Abuja, Prophet Emmanuel Omale.
Omale had, on 24 July 2020, filed a defamation suit marked CV/2290/2022 before the FCT High Court against NAN and Chafe and cited the publication on NAN’s website with a libellous headline- “How Magu used Pastor to launder looted funds abroad report”, saying that the story was false, defamatory and injurious to his reputation.
In his judgment delivered on 8 December 2022 in the matter, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that the publication was defamatory in its entirety and directed NAN to pay Omale N100 million in damages.
Dissatisfied with the lower court’s verdict, NAN and Chafe filed a Notice of Appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/535/23, asking the appellate court to nullify the lower court’s judgment and quash the damages for lack of merit.
In the court processes made available to journalists on Thursday, NAN and Chafe (the appellants) adopted their brief of argument, presented by their lawyer, T D Agbe, urging the appellate court to uphold their appeal and set aside the lower court’s verdict.
But Omale (the respondent), in his brief of argument filed by his lawyer, Bar Okafor Kanayo, urged the appellate court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the N100million damages awarded by the lower court.
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