Lai Mohammed, the Nigerian Minister for Information and Culture has instituted a suit before a high court in Abuja against an online media platform over alleged false and libellous publication against him.
Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has sued a media house for N100 billion.
According to him, he sued the media house, Pointblank News over alleged libelous publications
According to Nairametrics, Mohammed instituted the suit before a high court in Abuja against an online media platform over alleged false and libellous publication against him.
The Minister is contending that the said publication is “untrue, malicious, unfounded and wicked” and had injured his character and reputation.
Mr 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.
Backstory
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 Aug. 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” publishes on Aug. 11, 2021,″ he said.
The Minister claimed that the content 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 publication.
Relief sought
The Minister is asking 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 libelous 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.
Mr Mohammed also asked the court to order the two defendants to respectively write an undertaking to desist from further publishing defamatory words against him.
