Lawyers disagreed on Monday over the documents’ admissibility during the hearing of former Imo East Senator Chris Anyanwu’s N550 million defamation suit against former Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim.
The hearing came up at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Jabi, Abuja.
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Mr Ohakim’s lawyer, Ken Njemanze, raised objections against the admissibility of the copies of the newspaper publication and press release tendered by Mrs Anyanwu’s claimants’ legal team. The contents of the document are at the centre of the defamation case.
Ms Anyawu, 73, instituted the defamation suit against Mr Ohakim, demanding N550 million damages for the former governor’s alleged defamatory remarks made about her in an interview published by The Nation newspaper in January.
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The admissibility arguments ensued after Adekunle Kosoko, one of Mrs Anyawu’s lawyers, presented a deposition statement, a newspaper publication, and a press release from NewsNaija through the claimant’s first witness, Joyce Ejukonemu, a researcher and gender protection specialist.
Objecting to the admissibility of the copy of the newspaper publication, Mr Njemanze said what ought to be submitted was an original form of the copy, not a photocopy.
He also argued that “the claimant’s witness has not produced a receipt evidencing payment for the purported certification.”
Mr Njemanze urged the court to reject the document.
However, Mr Kosoko said the newspaper bore endorsements from the National Library and complied with the law. He cited Section 105 of the Evidence Act and showed the court the certified true copy of the newspaper.
The judge overruled the objection and admitted the document.
However, Mr Njemanze also opposed the admissibility of the press statement and report from Naija News, noting that no legal foundation was laid for the admissibility of the press release, and that the Naija News document was generated electronically with no certificate of compliance.
Responding, Mr Kosoko argued that Section 84 of the Evidence Act allowed for oral certification of the press release through a witness statement.
The judge fixed 1 December for ruling.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in June how the hearing was rescheduled twice in just three days due to the absence of Mr Ohakim’s counsel.
Anyawu drops The Nation from suit
Mrs Anyawu’s lead counsel, Umeh Kalu, informed the court of his client’s decision to free the second defendant, Vintage Press Ltd, publisher of The Nation newspaper, from the suit.
Trial judge, Mr Sani, asked the lawyer to file a proper application to reflect the development.
The former senator sued The Nation’s publisher and parent company, Vintage Press Ltd, as the second defendant.
The publisher has since admitted its error and retracted Mr Ohakim’s alleged defamatory comments made in an interview published on 12 January.
The newspaper has since published a retraction of the interview and an apology to Mrs Anyanwu.
Background
Mrs Anyanwu, a journalist turned politician who represented the Imo East senatorial district in Nigeria’s Senate from 2007 to 2015, filed a defamation suit against Mr Ohakim, following an interview the former governor granted The Nation Newspaper, which was published on 12 January.
In the disputed interview, Mr Ohakim accused the ex-senator of failing to mention in her book, ‘Bold Leap,’ that she apologised to the late military Head of State, Sani Abacha, over a coup d’etat she authored during the maximum ruler’s regime.
Mrs Anyanwu, who was arrested in 1995 for being an “accessory after the fact of treason,” following her reporting on a failed coup d’état against the government of Sani Abacha, denied apologising to the dictator.
Mrs Anyanwu was prosecuted behind camera by a military court and sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 July 1995. The sentence was later reduced to 15 years in October 1995 following pressure from national and international human rights groups. She was released by the regime of Abubakar Abdusalami, who took office as the Head of State after Mr Abacha died in 1998.
READ ALSO: Again, court postpones ex-senator Anyanwu’s defamation suit against Ohakim
Incensed by Mr Ohakim’s remarks suggesting that she apologised to the late Abacha, Mrs Anyanwu dared the former governor to publish the apology letter she had written to the late military head of state.
She subsequently filed a defamation suit seeking N550 million in damages against Mr Ohakim over the alleged defamation in the Nation interview and a press statement released by the former governor’s aide, Amanze Ajoku.
But Mr Ohakim justified his comment in the defence he filed against the suit. While admitting making the comments, he justified them as fair. He also declared his intention to publish in his forthcoming book the apology letter Mrs Anyanwu purportedly sent to the late military Head of State, Mr Abacha.
But for its part, The Nation newspaper conceded making an error publishing the interview and subsequently retracted it. It notified the court of this development in its filing submitted to the court on 1 June.
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