A Benin High Court has awarded Edo State
Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, N25million as
damages in a libel suit he instituted against the
publishers of News of the People, a soft sell
weekly magazine.
Governor Oshiomhole had dragged the soft sell
weekly magazine to court demanding
N250million as damages over their report with
the headline:
'Oshiomhole's sex power exposed:
Impregnates young girl six months after
death of wife."
The magazine had written that Governor
Oshiomhole impregnated a student of the state-
owned
Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, bought the said
girl a jeep and interfered in the academic
activities of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, on
behalf of the girl.
That Gov Oshiomole used sexual performance
enhancement drugs and that he had performed
traditional marriage rites precedent to marriage
between him and the said girl.
The governor told the court that he demanded
damages because the said publication caused
him and his children psychological trauma, six
months after the death of his wife, as the
libellous piece was widely circulated, to coincide
with preparations for one of his daughter's
wedding.
He said:
"When I called a brother governor to
sponsor my daughter's wedding, the
governor said he was confused, and asked
me if I was the one doing the marriage or
my daughter. He added that he was
reading a magazine which said that I was
about getting married to a university
student, and that the said wife-to-be was
already pregnant."
In his judgment, the trial Judge, Justice Efe
Ikponmwen, also ordered the magazine to
publish a well-worded retraction and apology in
a similarly conspicous manner in an edition of
the magazine.
He held that the governor's evidence proved that
the magazine's publication was libelous, and
that even though the public has a right to know
about a public officer, such information should
be in line with the law and must not be in bad
light.
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