Sahara Reporters - Omoyele Sowore runs from his office over N100M lawsuit
Journalist and public relations consultant, Lekan Fatodu has secured a court order for substituted service bordering on a defamation lawsuit, against Sowore Omoyele, publisher of SaharaReporters.
In a court document with suit
no: ID/ADR/492/2017, a High Court sitting in Lagos granted an order that
the lawsuit against Sowore and two other defendants should be pasted "on
the entrance to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Defendants being their last known
address situated and known as 46B Adekunle Fajuyi way, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos
state".
Fatodu had accused Sowore of requesting for N100M in bribe money from him after a deal with the Nigerian government.
Once he didn't play ball, Fatodu says, Sowore proceeded to write damaging stories about his person.
Claimed relocation
Fatodu
stated that application for the court order became necessary after
several failed attempts to serve Sowore at 46B Adekunle Fajuyi way, GRA
Ikeja, Lagos State, the address the SaharaReporters founder provided to
the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as his business address.
Fatodu says the sentry at the property claimed the publisher had moved out of the building.
"It's
really shameful that a self-appointed apostle of probity like Sowore
Omoyele will be employing cunning means to evade justice," Fatodu said.
"This
same address, 46B Adekunle Fajuyi way, GRA, Ikeja Lagos State, is the
address submitted to Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) by Sowore as his
official address and the same address given to MacArthur Foundation by
Sowore to secure funding for his blackmailing enterprise.
"Now
Sowore has abandoned the property thinking that he will hide from the
long arms of the law. I was compelled to procure this court order
against Sowore to bring him to justice after several attempts to serve
him the defamation lawsuit failed as I suspected he had told the
gate-man met at the address to lie that he had moved out of the
property".
Corruption fight
Fatodu further stated that his determination to pursue the case is premised on the need to fight corruption in Nigeria.
"The
greatest mistake we will be making as a nation is to focus our fight
against corruption only on politicians forgetting the fact that those
politicians didn't drop from heaven. They all emerged from different
areas of our lives before stepping into politics.
"Therefore
we should start to fight corrupt online publishers, bankers, doctors,
lecturers etc before they move into political circle where it is more
difficult to bring them to justice for their despicable conducts.
"Like
I've said many times, Sowore and I have been friends for over 20 years.
Nonetheless we must ensure that we live up to the highest of standards
we always demand from others.
"I'm
obviously not the first friend Sowore will maliciously blackmail and
attack. He once did it to Barrister Festus Keyamo SAN, who is a good
brother and friend of mine. Sowore only later warmed up to Keyamo after
the dogged human rights advocate was ready to expose him. He also did it
to Idowu Daramola, I will definitely speak more on that at a latter
date.
"But
I'm first to get Sowore arrested and drag him to court. And I'm certain
this case will be a valuable resource, reference and lesson for digital
media practitioners and students of mass communication on ethical and
responsible online publishing".
Recall that Fatodu got Sowore arrested in January 2017 for threatening his life, criminal defamation and blackmail.
He would later file a N100M defamation suit against the SaharaReporters publisher.
Sahara Reporters - Omoyele Sowore runs from his office over N100M lawsuit
Reviewed by opeyemi
on
5:49:00 am
Rating: