The Court of Appeal has affirmed the decision of the High Court of Lagos State awarding five million Naira as general damages among others for libel to a former deputy governor of Imo State, Sir Jude Agbaso against Prince Marshal Okafor Anyanwu, a former Imo State Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Agbaso who was impeached as deputy governor of Imo State in March 2013 had filed an action in the Lagos State High Court through his lawyers, Auxano Law, claiming damages for a publication in the Daily Sun newspaper signed by Okafor-Anyanwu wherein allegations of corruption were made against Agbaso. Agbaso contended that the allegations were false and were only used as pretext to remove him from office.
In his defence, Okafor-Anyanwu argued that although he signed the publication, it should be taken as a publication of APGA which he merely wrote in his capacity as State Chairman. He argued that it was rather APGA that should be liable for the libel especially when Agbaso did not prove that he was the person who paid the Daily Sun for the advertorial.
In the judgment delivered on 31st May, 2018, Hon. Justice I. O. Harrison of the Lagos High Court held that Okafor-Anyanwu defamed Agbaso by the publication and ordered him to write a letter of apology to Agbaso within 7 days of the judgment, pay five million Naira as general damages, publish retractions in the Daily Sun, The Nation and Punch on a Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday consecutively, and also pay costs of N100,000 to Agbaso.
But Okafor-Anyanwu appealed to the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division against the judgment contending that the lower Court was wrong to have held him liable for the said libel when he only signed the newspaper publication in his capacity as Imo State chairman of APGA and when it was not shown that he paid for the publication.
Agbaso’s lawyer Chijioke Emeka, SAN of Auxano Law contended that Agbaso was free to choose who to sue among several tortfeasors responsible for the malicious publication and that Agbaso had rightly chosen to sue the author of the defamatory material. The learned SAN contended that proof of payment for publication is not a requirement for success in a libel claim as even a mere vendor or bookseller can be held liable for his publication of a defamatory material.Legal Service Referrals
In its judgment, a special panel of the Court of Appeal constituted by Hon. Justices Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo, Abubakar Talba and Abdullahi Bayero JJCA, dismissed Okafor-Anyanwu’s appeal and unanimously upheld the decision of Hon. Justice Harrison. The Court reaffirmed that Okafor-Anyanwu was rightly held liable for defaming Agbaso with the advertorial which he authored even though APGA was not sued as a party.
