By Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the December 5 bye-election in the Lagos East Senatorial district, Mr Tokunbo Abiru has dragged the Media Director of the Babatunde Gbadamosi Senatorial Election Campaign Council, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse before an Ikeja High Court for alleged defamation of character.
In a suit filed by his counsel, Mr Kemi Pinheiro, Abiru alleged that Pearse made several defamatory remarks against his person in widely spread publications.
According to him, Pearse made malicious and damaging statements on both social and traditional media describing him as a rogue banker and a fraudster.
In his statement of claims, Abiru instituted N1 billion damages against Pearse for alleged libel while asking the court to restrain him, his agents, servants, privies or whosoever from further publishing or causing to be published the defamatory words complained about.
He, also, applied for an order directing Pearse, his agents, servants, privies or howsoever “to retract or cause to be retracted the said libellous publication in the same manner and form adopted in the publication of the defamatory words and tender an unreserved apology in the form and manner to be prescribed by the solicitors to the Claimant and publish same in one full page insertion in three national dailies to within 72 hours of the judgment of the court, and all social media platforms: YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.”
In another suit, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked a Federal High Court, Ikoyi to order the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, to prosecute the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for December 5 by-election in Lagos East, Mr Babatunde Gbadamosi for alleged forgery and perjury.
Counsel to the APC, Mr Olukayode Enitan (SAN) on Tuesday prayed the court to compel the police boss to investigate and prosecute Gbadamosi in an application he filed pursuant to Order 34 Rules 1 and 3 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedures) Rules, 2019.
The APC had, in Suit NO: FHC/L/CS/1659/2020, sued Gbadamosi and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for allegations of forgery, perjury, fraud and failure to participate in the one-year mandatory national youth service.
The party had, in its writs of summons, claimed that it discovered certain discrepancies in the certificates, which according to the APC, were indicative of the fact that the WAEC certificate Gbadamosi submitted to the INEC might have been falsified.
It also claimed that some of the discrepancies observed in Gbadamosi’s WAEC certificate include the number of subjects the PDP candidate allegedly sat for which it said “is different from the number of subjects he sat for as contained on the website of WAEC. Also, the grades he claimed to have received via the certificate is different from that contained on the official website of WAEC,” the APC declared in its writs of summon.
The party also applied for the issuance of a prerogative Writ of Mandamus to compel the IG to discharge his public duty to investigate the PDP candidate for allegations of forgery, perjury, fraud and failure to participate in the mandatory national youth service.
It argued that the allegations “are offences under the provisions of Sections 465, 467 and 117 of the Criminal Code Act, 2004 and the National Youth Service Corps (Amendment) Act, which according to the party, placed duty upon the IG to investigate and prosecute the PDP candidate.”
