An Abuja High Court on Thursday admitted eight exhibits tendered by the Premiere Academy of Abuja to establish its N500 million defamation suit instituted against a journalist, Lemmy Ughegbe.
Premiere Academy had dragged the journalist who is also an activist before the court claiming N500 million in damages for defamation.
The school alleged that Ughegbe defamed its character while speaking on the cause of her death at the NBA Law Week in Abuja among others.
The exhibits were admitted by Justice Kayode Agunloye, when they were tendered by counsel to the Academy, Olajide Kumuyi.
In the suit filed by Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, the school is praying the court to prohibit the journalist from further defaming it in his allegation that a female student of the school died as a result of rape on the school premises.
The school claimed that the gender activist defamed it in his persistent allegations that the 14-year old student was raped .
Mr Kumuyi, who led the Principal of the school, Christopher Akinsowon in evidence, tendered eight different documents before the court to support the case against the defendant.
The exhibits tendered are the flash drive containing a video clip footage of where the activist addressed a gathering of about 5,000 lawyers at the 2021 Law Week of the Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA) in Abuja where the alleged defamatory remarks were made.
Others are admission registers of the school for three years showing an alleged downturn in students enrollment as a result of the alleged persistent defamation.
In one of the registers, the school claimed that it was only able to get 59 new applicants in year 2022 that sat for the admission examination adding that the School suffered the fate for the three years.
Also tendered are the Sept.2, 2021 online news publications of Daily Independent and The Sun newspapers which the activist allegedly used, among others, to spread the alleged defamation of its reputation.
Similarly, a letter from Awomolo SAN Law Firm warning the activist on the alleged defamation and asking him to desist as well as his reply through his lawyer, Johnbull Adaghe justifying his actions were also tendered.
Responding, Adaghe, counsel to the defendant raised objections against the admission of the documents as exhibits on various grounds.
Among others, the he argued that some of the documents were not front loaded and also not pleaded in the witness statement of the School Principal.
His objections to the documents were countered by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Kumuyi, who drew the attention of the court to some paragraphs in the witness statement on oath where references were made to them.
In a brief ruling, Justice Kayode Agunloye agreed with submissions of Kumuyi and over- ruled the objections of the activist against the documents and admitted them as exhibits.
Meanwhile, Agunloye adjourned the matter until March 18 to play in open court, the video footage of where the activist allegedly made the defamatory remarks at the Abuja NBA 2021 Law Week.
NAN
