Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has sued Reno Omokri, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, and four others for N1.5bn over alleged defamation.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that other defendants in the suit are Daniel Elombah, Elombah Communications, Barrister Joseph Onu, and Auta Nyada.
In two separate suit filed by his lawyer, Mr. A.U. Mustapha, SAN, before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, El-Rufai said the defendants on different occasions maligned him and made derogatory comments about him.
The governor, in a suit against Omokri, said the former media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan authored a newspaper publication titled: “El Rufai’s email saying southern women youth corpers are seen as whores”, which portrayed him in a bad light was injurious to his reputation.
El-Rufai said that the article which was carried by Thisday Newspaper on Sunday, June 14, was “malicious, unwarranted and defamatory”. The governor asked Omokri to pay the sum of N500million in compensation and issue an apology in the Newspaper.
In the suit against Odinkalu, Elombah and Elombah Communications, El Rufai, told the court that a publication titled: “Litany of 25 critics who have suffered at El Rufai’s hands compiled by Chidi Odinkalu”, which was published in Elombah.com on Wednesday, September 2, was “malicious, unlawful and without any justification.”
He equally demanded the sum of N500m in damages, as well as an apology for the article he said was defamatory and greatly injurious to reputation. Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for hearing of the suits as the time of filing this report.
