Fayemi is suing ex-Commissioner Ekiti for defamation and demanding N500 million

A former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has filed an N500m lawsuit against a former Commissioner of Information in the State, Mr. Kayode Otitoju, and Arise Television for alleged defamation and malicious broadcasting of abusive broadcasts against him.

In the lawsuit, HAD/10/2023, filed in an Ekiti State High Court on January 25, 2023, Fayemi is seeking N250m from Otitoju and another N250m from Arise TV for alleged defamation statements made by the politician as an analyst on the television station on November 22, 2022.

According to the court summons made available to journalists on Sunday, Fayemi, through his lawyer, Mr. Babatunde Oke, is demanding a retraction of the defamatory statements broadcast against him by the first defendant (Otitoju) while appearing as an analyst on Newsday , a program from the second suspect (Arise TV).

The former governor is also demanding a public apology to be published in at least three national newspapers in Nigeria and posted on the internet/social media.

He is also seeking court approval for a perpetual injunction barring the defendants from making similar or further defamatory statements or publications against him, while also demanding N20 million costs of the lawsuit from them and also 10 percent interest on the court’s judgment. date on which the judgment is rendered until the amount of the judgment is finally settled.

Fayemi claimed that he had been subjected to and subjected to “unwarranted public ridicule, odium, libel, embarrassment and unprecedented disrepute” because of the defendants’ false and reckless malicious statements, which he described as mere fabrication and untruth orchestrated to blacken him and stain to paint. his good image and record as a sincere man and to destroy his future political career.

He claimed that Otitoju made several serious and damaging accusations against his person in the said program where he allegedly described him (Fayemi) as “the problem we have in Ekiti”.

He said Fayemi was charged with, among others, conspiring with Judge Babs Kuewumi of the Federal Supreme Court, Ado Ekiti Judicial Division to commit perversion of justice in the lawsuit brought by an All Progressives Congress aspiring governor, Mr. Kayode Ojo , against the primary win of the governorship. from Mr. Biodun Oyebanji on January 27, 2022.