The war between COSON chairman, Tony Okoroji and veteran singer Onyeka Onwenuhas taken a new twist.
A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja today Thursday, June 30, 2016 has ordered Onyeka Onwenu to pay the sum of five million naira as damages for defamation of character to Chief Tony Okoroji, former President of PMAN and Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).
Delivering judgment in Suit No: ID/935/12 filed in 2012, Hon Justice I. O. Akinkugbe (Mrs.) also ordered Ms. Onwenu to tender an unreserved public apology to Chief Okoroji to be published in Vanguard Newspapers and www.vanguardngr.com, the website of Vanguard Newspapers.
The war between Okoroji and Onyeka dates back to 2011 when Okoroji went to court following the publication of an article in the Vanguard newspaper edition of October 14, 2011 which he considered a deliberate attempt to malign or defame him.
According to the COSON chair, the article claiming he diverted N3m donated by the Cross Rivers State Government towards the final burial of Christy Essien Igbokwe, is ‘unjustified, unwarranted, malicious, wicked, reckless and libellous.’
The case was however thrown out by a Lagos State High Court. Back then, Justice I.O. Kasali who ruled in the case, submitted: ‘For words to be defamatory of a party, the said words must have lowered that party in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public and there must be evidence of this from a person whose views of that person have been so adversely affected’.
*Let’s see if she will apologise because these days in Nigeria most people do not respect a Judges verdict!
No comments:
Post a Comment