A Kano High Court has ordered Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to pay N800,000 in damages to the Daily Nigeria newspaper Ja’afar Ja’afar and his company Penlight Media Ltd for withdrawing his defamation and lawsuit against them.
Ja’afar Ja’afar, who is the Publisher of an online platform, Daily Nigerian, had leaked a video where the governor was allegedly seen collecting bribes.
In the video, the governor was seen stuffing foreign currencies in his pocket.
Ganduje had dragged the journalist to court over the leaked video.
Justice Suleiman Danmallan granted the governor’s application to discontinue the case.
He, however, directed him to pay N400,000 each to Ja’afar and the online newspaper, both defendants in the suit.
Counsels for Ja’afar and his company, Ubi Eteng and Muhammad Danazumi, had asked the court to award N400 million as the cost of discontinuing the suit.
But Ganduje’s counsel, O.E.B. Offiong (SAN), urged the court to disregard the prayers, noting that since the defendants had informed the court they have filed a counter-claim, the issue of cost should be delayed till then.
Ja’afar had in a counter-claim asked the court to declare the governor’s case as “vexatious, baseless, gold-digging and of no substance whatsoever.”
An article published on the Daily Nigeria on Tuesday said, “The court has rejected a petition filed by Ganduje’s lawyers on June 28, 2021, seeking a stay of the case without giving any explanation.”
“Daily Nigeria lawyer Muhammad Dan’Azumi challenged the petition asking the court to dismiss it and described Ganduje’s claim as baseless,” the newspaper said.
She also said that Judge S. B. Namalam had ordered the governor to pay Ja’afar Ja’afar N400,000 and his company N400,000 for defamation.