The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt has upheld the fine imposed on popular Nigerian On-Air Personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, also known as Daddy Freeze, for committing adultery.
A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had on
February 18, 2021, ordered Daddy Freeze to pay the sum of N5m for committing
adultery with one Benedicta Elechi.
He was ordered to pay the money to Paul Odekina, who was
married to Elechi at the time the adulterous act was committed.
“The sum of N5,000,000 is awarded against Ifedayo Olarinde
(the 2nd Cross Respondent to the Cross Petition) as damages for depriving the
Cross Petitioner of the amiable consort of his wife (Petitioner/1st Cross
Respondent) and for injury suffered as a result of his adultery with the
Petitioner/Cross Respondent,
The court also dissolved the marriage contracted between
Paul and Benedicta due to her adulterous act with Daddy Freeze.
https://punchng.com/high-court-fines-daddy-freeze-n5m-for-adultery/?amp
Not satisfied with the High Court’s judgement, Daddy Freeze
approached the appellate court for redress.
Daddy Freeze’s main grounds of appeal were that Odekina did
not attempt to serve him personally before applying for substituted service,
which violates Order 7 Rule 2 of the Rules of the Trial Court.
He also held that the purported service by substituted means
i.e., by courier was not effective as shown in the affidavit of service, adding
that the non-service violates the twin pillars of the principle of natural
justice.
In the Certified True Copy of the judgment, dated June 26, 2024,
and obtained by our correspondent on Friday, the three-man panel of Justice
Abubakar Talba, Danlami Senchi, and Hannatu Balogun dismissed Daddy Freeze’s
appeal for lack of merit.
The court ruled that if the appellant wanted to overturn the
trial court’s judgment due to non-service, he should have filed a
counter-affidavit against the affidavit of service and then sought to set aside
the trial court’s judgment.
It partly read, “Affidavit evidence can only be countered by
a Counter Affidavit. As such, I found the procedure adopted by the Appellant
alien to our jurisprudence.
“Where the Appellant wants the judgment of the trial court
to be set aside for non-service, he ought to have approached the trial court by
filing a Counter affidavit against the affidavit of service he seeks to set
aside and consequently set aside the judgment of the trial court. Thus, as it
is in the instant appeal there is nothing filed by the Appellant to counter the
affidavit of service of the Process Server filed in
“Hence, therefore I resolved the sole issue for
determination against the Appellant and in favour of the Respondents. The
appeal therefore lacks merit and it is hereby dismissed
“Accordingly, the judgment of the Rivers State High Court in
Suit No. PHC/403MC/2012 delivered on the 18th February 2021 by J. Akpughunum,
is hereby affirmed. I make no order as to costs”.
According to the CTC of the judgement, Ola Faro and Ikobah
Hilton appeared for the appellant while N.A. Naenwi and Wilcox Abereton (SAN)
represented the first and second respondents respectively.
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