Defamation: EFCC appeals against judgement awarding N10m damages to ex-minister

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has appealed against the FCT High Court’s judgement holding it liable and awarding N10 million damages against it for defaming a former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye.

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It also applied for a stay of execution to halt the enforcement of judgement pending the determination of its appeal.

According to a statement by EFCC’s head of media and publicity, Dele Oyewale, on Sunday, the commission filed the notice of appeal on Friday at the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

The commission filed the appeal on 11 grounds of appeal and presented four prayers.

“The orders the Commission is seeking in the appeal are orders allowing the appeal, setting aside the whole of the judgment, dismissing Agunloye’s claim before the trial court in its entirety and any other order the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of the appeal,” EFCC’s statement read.

On 8 July, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Judge Peter Kekemeke awarded N10 million against the EFCC for publishing a libelous article via its social media accounts about Mr Agunloye.

The judge held that the post was unfair and used a “sensational headline” against the former minister. The judge gave the judgement in a suit Mr Agunloye to seek N1 billion in damages against the anti-graft agency for the publication of an article titled “EFCC arraigns Agunloye over $6 billion fraud.”

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The anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, vowed in an interview with journalists shortly after the court delivered the verdict that the commission would go on appeal.

“Though the court has delivered its judgement, we are definitely going to appeal the court’s decision,” Mr Shittu said.

Mr Agunloye, the founding Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) from 1988 to 1994, served in the then-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet, first as the Minister of Defence (Navy) from 2002 to 2003 and later as the Minister of Power from 2003 to 2004.

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Mr Agunloye is facing seven charges of official corruption that stemmed from the award of Mambilla hydroelectric power contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.

The EFCC alleged that Mr Agunloye awarded a contract, titled ‘Construction of 3,960mw Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a Build, Operate and Transfer Basis,’ to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited without any budgetary provision, approval and cash backing.

However, Mr Kekemeke ruled in the separate defamation suit that the details of the charges in Mr Agunloye’s ongoing trial at the Apo Division of the FCT High Court did not include fraud stated in EFCC’s libelous article.

The judge ordered EFCC to retract the post and apologise to Mr Agunloye on its website and in two national newspapers.

As of the time of this report, no date has been fixed for the hearing of EFCC’s appeal against the verdict.