Appeal Court Dismisses Ex-Gov Fayose’s N1b Libel Suit Against TheNEWS

The legal move by a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, to restore his reputation has suffered a setback at the Court of Appeal.

While he was in power Mr. Fayose had slammed a N1 billion libel suit against TheNEWS magazine for reporting the press conference of an activist lawyer, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele who cried out that he was marked for elimination for writing petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the N1.2 billion poultry project scam in Ekiti State.

The counsel to TheNEWS magazine, Mr Femi Falana, pleaded justification and contended at the trial that the publication was true in every material particular.

In dismissing the libel suit, the trial judge, Justice A.S. Daramola, now Acting Chief Judge of Ekiti State, agreed with Mr. Fayose’s counsel, Mr. Adetokunbo Kayode, SAN, that the publication was libelous.

However, the Judge held that the ex-governor lacked reputation worthy of protection by a law court.

The judge relied heavily on the contradictory evidence of Mr. Fayose on the poultry project and the 33-page report compiled by the State Security Service which indicted him on politically motivated killings in Ekiti State under his regime.

Dissatisfied with the damning verdict of the Ekiti State High Court, Mr. Fayose prayed the court to restore his lost reputation.

But in a judgment delivered on 31 March , 2012 the Court of Appeal, sitting at Ado-Ekiti , upheld the judgment of the lower court in its entirety.

The Appeal Court berated Mr. Fayose for compiling a record which deliberately excluded “the proceedings of the trial court on 13 June 2006 when the Appellant (Fayose) was cross-examined by Mr. Femi Falana for the Defendants / Respondents”.

The Appeal Court stated that the manipulation of the record of the trial court by the ex-governor was “tantamount to trying to cover the sun or the moon with one’s finger. But nothing can be done against the truth, but for the truth. It is sad that a game of hide and seek usually associated with little children can be played by adults, in this court. It is reprehensible and unacceptable”.

The Appeal Court found that the trial judge was within the law and his province when he found that “the appellant (Fayose) was an untruthful and unbelievable witness. The learned trial judge was very modest in his description of the Appellant as a liar not because of the former’s personal knowledge of the Appellant, but because of the inconsistent pieces of evidence given by the latter in respect of the poultry farm project”.

In the lead judgment of the Appeal Court read by Justice Tom Shaibu Yakubu, it was held that Mr. Fayose admitted that “the poultry was yet to be completed. Therefore, he could not be telling the truth in his earlier testimony that chickens were already being produced from the poultry farm and could be purchased by a foreigner in Ekiti State!”

In dismissing the appeal, Mr. Fayose was ordered to pay N50,000 costs to the publishers of TheNEWS magazine.

Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, the Chairman of the Ado Ekiti branch of the Nigerian Bar Association who handled the appeal for Mr. Fayose thanked the Justices of the Court of Appeal for their unanimous judgment in the case.