Africa
AN Osun High Court sitting in Osogbo on Thursday adjourned for pre-hearing trial over an alleged defamation by a popular private radio station, Rave FM, in Osun.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Adepele Ojo, gave the order to allow counsel to both the plaintiff and the defendants serve the necessary documents after new application was filed by the defense counsel .
Ojo said both counsel should ensure the processes were well filed and served within the time as stipulated by law.
Counsel to the Plaintiff, Mr Suleiman Akano, told the court of his intention to withdraw an application dated Sept. 8, and filed on Sept. 9, on personal grounds.
Also, counsel to the defendants, Mr Bukola Onifade, sought the leave of the court to also move in terms of an application dated Oct. 21, filed the same day.
Onifade told the court that the application had been served on the Plaintiff’s counsel for proper judicial processes.
Akano , however, told the court that he was served a new application by the defence counsel and would have to go through the document.
The Judge , however , urged both counsel to ensure that all necessary documents were well filed and served before the next date of adjournment for pre-hearing conference on Jan. 20, 2023.
The Medical Director of Mercy Care and Pathological centre in Osun, Dr Adenuga Oyeniyi in a statement of claim with suit number HOW/69/2022, sued the radio station for N50 million over alleged defamation of character and false allegation.
Oyeniyi, in the claim filed before Osun High Court through his lawyer Suleiman Akano, claimed that the radio station, in one of its programmes, alleged that the hospital removed the eyes of one Amos Olabode, who was brought to his hospital for treatment.
He said though Olabode later died in the hospital, no parts of the deceased’s body were removed by any personnel of the hospital as allegedly reported by the radio station.
The medical director said he was claiming reliefs from the court that the radio station acted unprofessionally to have broadcast an unverified report against his image.
He said due to the false allegation, he had suffered mental torment and disturbance.
Oyeniyi said in spite the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), directed the radio station to grant him or any representatives of the hospital an interview to hear his own side of the story, the directive was ignored.
He urged the court to restrain the defendant from publishing, writing any libelous material against him.
Oyeniyi said due to the false report, people had stopped patronising his hospital, which he said was affecting his livelihood.
He also said that his friends and patients were now treating him as a leper who should not be related with.
He said unless reliefs sought by him were granted, his battered image and character would not be redeemed and the defendants would persist in their unjustified attack against him.
But the radio station in a statement of defence and oath, dated Oct. 12, said the report aired by the station was not in anyway defamatory, derogatory or targeted to ridicule anyone, but rather it was the true state of things at the time the information was disseminated.
The station also said that the claimant never approached them for an interview to say his side of the story but rather rushed to court to make unimaginable claims against the defendant. (NAN)
A.I
Tags: Dr Adenuga Oyeniyi Justice Adepele Ojo Mr Bukola Onifade Mr Suleiman Akano Nigeria Broadcasting Commission
