A Kano State High Court on Tuesday ordered Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje to pay N800,000 to the Publisher of Daily Nigerian, an online news medium, Ja’afar Ja’afar as cost for expenses incurred in the court case of the controversial dollar bribery video.
Recall that Ja’afar Ja’afar had in October 2018 released a video clip allegedly showing the Governor stuffing his pockets with bails of dollars suspected to be kick back from contractors even though the state government had since denied the videos.
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Recall that Ganduje dragged Ja’afar Ja’afar and others to court for defamation of character and seeking the sum of N3 billion as damages.
He, however filed an application through his counsel, Offiong Offiong on 28th June, 2021 seeking to discontinue the court case.
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At the Tuesday’s court sitting, counsel to the defendant, U. Eteng (Counsel to Ja’afar Ja’afar) and M. B. Azumi (Counsel to Penlight Media Limited) did not object to the application to discontinue the case but demanded the sum of N400 million as part of terms to discontinue the suit.
While Azumi asked for N300 million for damages for wasting their precious time and puting the reputation of his client’s image in jeopardy, the counsel for Jaafar, U. U. Eteng, demanded for N100 million.
The defendant counsel also demanded for an apology to be published in national dailies and a pre-action letter.
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In his ruling, Justice Suleiman Na-mallam granted the sum of N400,000 each to Ja’afar Ja’afar and his company, Penlight Media Limited (Daily Nigerian).
Justice Na-Mallam however, remained silent on the prayer by defendants to make a public apology in national dailies.
