Joined with Olayinka in the
suit is a member of the Ekiti House of Assembly, Dr Samuel Omotoso.
The former governor of
Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has dragged Mr. Lere Olayinka, the spokesperson
for Governor Ayodele Fayose, to court over alleged libel.
In the suit, which he filed
before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Fayemi is
seeking payment of N3m to cover for what he termed the aggravated damages,
which the defendants allegedly caused him.
Fayemi, who is now the
Minister of Mines and Steel, claimed to have been impugned by the defendants
through statements allegedly made by them on July 6, 2016 when appeared on
Ekiti State Television, during a live programme tagged Ejiire.
Fayemi claimed that during
the programme, which was also aired on a cable network, Startimes, the
defendants said he illegally took N1.5bn from Ekiti treasury and gave it to the
then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari,
to win the 2015 presidential election.
Fayemi also claimed that
Olayinka said he (Fayemi) illegally collected N5bn from Ecobank in the name of
Fountain Holdings for purported road construction.
Fayemi claimed that
Olayinka also accused him of spending state’s funds to build a private
university for himself in Ghana.
His lawyer, Balogun,
claimed that the defendants, through their alleged statements, portrayed his
client as a “very corrupt public office-holder and fraudulent person who
siphoned public funds at the detriment of Ekiti citizens while serving as
governor.”
The lawyer claimed that the
defendants had exposed his client to “public ridicule, odium, opprobrium,
embarrassment and unprecedented disrepute”, arguing that the duo had done
“incalculable and tremendous injury to our client’s image and personality as an
international figure”.
Fayemi claimed to have
resorted to filing the suit, after the defendants allegedly spurned a November
19, 2016 letter by his lawyer, Rafiu Balogun, demanding the retraction of the
said statement, which he described as offensive, and a public apology.
Fayemi is urging the court
to compel the defendants to retract the statement and to tender a public
apology to him, to be published and aired on Ekiti State Television and
Channels Television as well as on the social media.
He is also seeking a
perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further publishing or
making statements or utterances similar or further libelous publications or
statements or utterances against the plaintiff.
No date has been fixed for
hearing of the case.
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