Court fines Ganduje N.8m for withdrawing defamation suit against journalist

A Kano State High Court on Tuesday fined Governor Abdullahi Ganduje N800,000 for withdrawing his defamation suit against a journalist, Ja’afar Ja’afar,

Ja’afar, who is the Publisher of an online platform, Daily Nigerian, had leaked a video where the governor was allegedly seen collecting bribes.

In the video, the governor was seen stuffing foreign currencies in his pocket.

Ganduje had dragged the journalist to court over the leaked video.

Justice Suleiman Danmallan granted the governor’s application to discontinue the case.

He, however, directed him to pay N400,000 each to Ja’afar and the online newspaper, both defendants in the suit.

READ ALSO: Ganduje lacks moral right to speak on corruption —PDP

Counsels for Ja’afar and his company, Ubi Eteng and Muhammad Danazumi, had asked the court to award N400 million as the cost of discontinuing the suit.

But Ganduje’s counsel, O.E.B. Offiong (SAN), urged the court to disregard the prayers, noting that since the defendants had informed the court they have filed a counter-claim, the issue of cost should be delayed till then.

Ja’afar had in a counter-claim asked the court to declare the governor’s case as “vexatious, baseless, gold-digging and of no substance whatsoever.”

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