Mr. Bankole Makinde & Ors. V. Prince Godwin Omaghomi (2010)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

SIDI DAUDA BAGE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This appeal is against the judgment of the High Court of Oyo State sitting in Ibadan, presided over by Hon. Justice A. A. Sanda, delivered on the 30th June, 2004. The Plaintiff/Respondent’s claims against the Defendants/Appellants jointly and severally at the lower Court are for:-

(a) N5 Million (Five Million Naira) being damages for libel contained in pages 2 & 3 of Sunday Tribune Edition of 7th March 1999, captioned I do not know Clifford Orji” says Ibadan mystery man printed and published and circulated by the Defendants concerning the Plaintiff.

(b) Injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents, servants or privies from further publishing and or circulating the said or any similar libel concerning the Plaintiff.

The background facts are that, the 1st and 2nd Appellants who are staff of the 3rd Appellant, caused a story to be published on the Respondent in the Sunday Tribune, one of the tabloids of the 3rd Appellant on March 7, 1999 captioned I DONT KNOW CLIFFORD ORJI SAYS IBADAN MYSTERY MAN.The said story, falsely and maliciously portrayed the Respondent as an occultist, queer and dangerous person. The publication was widely read in Ibadan and other part of the country portrayed the Respondent as a ghost, a reincarnated man who sells his wares only to the fairies and rulers of the universe.

The Respondent wrote a petition dated 29th March, 1999 to the Appellants complaining against the publication of 7th March, 1999 and demanding for apology. The Appellants rather than apologizing as demanded by the Respondent, published again on the 4th April, 1999 same story without any apology to the Respondent. The Respondent later instructed his Solicitor to write a letter to the Appellants demanding for apology written on the 21st July, 1999. It was the failure of the Appellants to tender the requisite apology on the misinformation it published about the Respondent that was the cause of the suit in the Court below.

At the end of the trial, the learned trial Judge awarded the sum of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) as damages against the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Appellants jointly and severally in favour of the Respondent. In the Notice of Appeal dated 22/07/2004 there were eight (8) grounds of appeal from which the Appellants distilled five issues for determination of this Court. The Issues are:-

(1) Whether the words complained of constituted the tort of libel and the Defendant justly hold liable by the trial Court.

(2) Whether the defence of fair comment raised by the Defendants was not properly made in the circumstances of this case.

(3) Whether the learned trial Judge could rightly speculate on evidence in considering factors for award of damages.

(4) Whether the sum of N500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) awarded as damages is not manifestly high in the circumstances of this case and arrived at through speculation on evidence regarding the factors to be considered in the award of damages.

(5) Whether the cost of N10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Naira) awarded is not excessive in the circumstances having found and held in the judgment that cost should not be punitive but compensatory.

On the part of the Respondent three Issues were formulated. They are:-

(1) Whether the Respondent succeeded in proving the case of libel against the Appellants.