The Nigerian Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has instituted a suit before an FCT High Court in Abuja against an online media platform over allegedly false and libellous publications against him.
The minister in the regime of Muhammadu Buhari is contending that the said publication is “untrue, malicious, unfounded and wicked” and had injured his character and reputation.
Mohammed is therefore seeking the court to grant him N100 billion in damages against the news platform for the mental distress he suffered as a result of the publications according to Nan.
In the writ of Summons, the minister averred that on August 3, 2021, Pointblank News published an exclusive story about him titled “Lai Mohammed in N10 billion Fraud Scandal as ICPC swoops on NBC”.
He claimed his lawyer then sent a letter asking the media platform to retract the said publication.
However, the platform failed to retract the said publication. hence, he approached the court seeking redress.
He said on August 11, the platform published another article against him titled: “Lai Mohammed, NBC head for showdown over N10 billion Fraud, Minister in Hot Deal with Interpol Most Wanted.”
“The defendants made a publication described as ‘Exclusive Pointblanknews.com investigations’ and written under the very bold banner and title: ‘Lai Mohammed in N10 billion Fraud Scandal as ICPC swoops on NBC” which was published on August 3, 2021.
“They published another one tagged as ‘Lai Mohammed, NBC head for showdown over N10 billion Fraud, Minister in Hot Deal with Interpol Most Wanted” published on August 11, 2021,″ he said.
The minister claimed that the contents of the said publications were false and were meant to defame his character. He claimed he received calls from so many people due to the said publications.
He asked the court to award N50 billion aggravated and exemplary damages against the defendants for libel.
He also sought the court to award another N50 billion general damages against the defendants for alleged libellous publication as it injured his character and reputation.
He asked the court to order the defendants to retract the said publications and apologise to him publicly in two national newspapers.
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