Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, has sued the Daily Sun Newspapers for N1 billion
over an alleged defamatory story the media organisation wrote against
him. Lamorde instituted the case at the Federal High Court
sitting in Abuja through Festus Keyamo, his counsel. According to the
statement of claim filed by Keyamo, the plaintiff is claiming the sum of
N1 billion “being damages for the words published of and concerning the
plaintiff which are libelous by direct reference and innuendoes
contained at the front page and page 6 of the Daily Sun of 8th October,
2015 titled ‘N1TRN LOOTED FUNDS: LAMORDE, EFCC BOSS, IN SOUP’ and
further elaborated upon at page 6 of the said publication.”
The
plaintiff also demands a retraction of the story and an unreserved
apology by the defendant for the publication to be published with the
same bold print and on the same front page as the headline complained
of.
The plaintiff is further seeking an order of perpetual
injunction restraining the newspaper organisation, agents, privies or
servants from further “publishing any libelous, injurious or defamatory
words against the plaintiff.”
Lamorde, a Commissioner of Police,
denied that he was being investigated as claimed by the newspaper story,
insisting further that the story was false.
The story was that
Lamorde was “being investigated over allegations of diversion of over N1
trillion from the sale of confiscated properties belonging to convicted
public officials including former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye
Alamieyesiegha and former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun,
among many others.”
The story further said the Presidency’s
searchlight had actually been on the EFCC following complaints and
reports that EFCC operatives were notoriously letting some financial
crimes suspects off the hook rather than prosecuting them and that the
decision to investigate Lamorde followed a petition by George Uboh,
Chief Executive Officer of Panic Alert Security Systems, a security
firm, who had appeared before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges
and Public Petitions on 23 August.
The statement of claim said with
the story, the plaintiff had been regarded as a fraudulent and corrupt
civil servant who engages in diversion of monies belonging to the
government and encourages his Operatives to collect bribes from suspects
or that he is a hypocrite whose fraudulent activities date back to 2003
when he was Director of Operations of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
Lamorde said he had been seriously injured in his
character, credit, reputation and integrity and had been brought to
public scandal, odium and contempt and had suffered damage by the
publication, adding that he received numerous telephone calls from
professional colleagues, international donor agencies, multinational
organisations, relations, friends and religious leaders expressing their
utmost disgust and contempt at his alleged disgraceful, unpatriotic and
sacrilegious conduct after the story was published.
“The
allegations in the publication are false and untrue. The defendants did
not conduct any investigation into the truth of the allegations before
publishing them.
“The defendant did not offer the plaintiff any opportunity to respond to the allegations before publishing them.
“By publishing the allegations in a sensational screaming headline, the
defendant evinced the intention to malign the plaintiff and drag his
reputation in the mud,” the statement of claim said.
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