A high court in Kaduna has ordered Today Publishing Company,
publishers of The Union newspaper, to pay N10m as damages for defaming Nasir
El-Rufai, governor of the state.
The court also ordered the company to tender a public
apology to the governor which must be published in national dailies.
El-Rufai had sued the newspaper for publishing false claims
about his assets declaration.
The Union newspaper had on July 2, 2015, published a
frontpage story saying that the governor had declared assets worth N90bn and 40
mansions.
In the judgment delivered on Monday, Mairo Muhammed, the
presiding judge, also restrained the defendants from further defaming the
governor.
The court held that El-Rufai had shown that the offending
material was published to third parties by the defendants.
“The plaintiff had satisfactorily shown that he did not
declare assets worth N90bn and 40 mansions, the implication of which is that
the words were false and defamatory of the plaintiff,” the judge held.
AbdulHakeem Mustapha, El-Rufai’s lawyer, described the
judgment as “a well considered judgment which was replete with industry and
erudition”.
Reacting to the court’s verdict, the governor said the “the
freedom to publish is not a license to defame people or clothe rumour-mongering
and malice as journalism”.
El-Rufai said he “approached the court and personally
testified in the case as a demonstration of his belief in the rule of law, a
stance he has taken in securing apologies from other newspapers for libel and
which informs his continued pursuit of other instances of defamation in the
courts”.
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