LOOTERS’ LIST: Court rules in Dokpesi’s suit against Lai Mohammed

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo, Abuja on Tuesday said that a suit asking that declaration of the looters’ list be voided lacked merit.

This was as Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, who presided over the matter ruled that the Federal Government did not violate rights to presumption of innocence of those whose names were listed in alleged looters’ list released by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, earlier this year.

The owner of the African Independent Television and Ray Power Radio, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, had filed the suit, praying the court to declare the looters’ list as void.

But in his ruling the judge held that the list of alleged looters made public by Mohammed on behalf of the Federal Government does not carry any force of law since the minister is neither the judge nor the prosecutor in the criminal case pending before the Federal High Court against Dokpesi.

According to the judge, if the plaintiff is upset by the possible injury the list may have done to him, he should seek a remedy through a libel/slander suit.

This was even as the court also on Tuesday adjourned the libel suit initiated by Dokpesi against the Lai Mohammed till November 9.

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The minister had earlier objected to the libel suit due to non-appearance of the lawyers defending him in court on Tuesday, but the court dismissed the objection and subsequently slated November 9 for hearing of the substantive suit.

 

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