Court okays Ojougboh’s suit overcracks in Delta PDP

AN Abuja High Court has dismissed a preliminary objection, seeking to terminate a libel suit brought by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, over a published statement credited to a member of the Delta State House of Assembly, representing Ika South Local Council, Martins Okonta.

Delivering its decision on Okonta’s preliminary objection on Tuesday, Justice Jude Okeke threw out Okonta’s request that Ojougboh’s action be dismissed for being “incurably defective, incompetent and a gross abuse of the process of court.”

Okonta’s claim that the court had been robbed of jurisdiction due to the incompetence of the action, given where it was filed, was also dismissed by the court.

In reaching the decision to dismiss the objection, Justice Okeke held that “in determining whether the court has jurisdiction or not, where the libel occurred must first be determined. If the publication is made available to the third party at anywhere, that instance place becomes the place of libel.   Secondly, the court has to consider where course of action can be ventilated. In the case of libel, the proper place is where the libel was published, read and seen for print media and heard or viewed for electronic media.

The appropriate place is where the material was published and made available to the third party to read. The plaintiff is therefore has the right to commence his action anywhere he likes, except the defendants can prove that the said publication was not read in Abuja. On this ground, I dismiss the application for lacking in merit.”

On the defendants’ second claim that the plaintiff (Ojougboh) did not seek the leave of the court to serve the former outside jurisdiction, the court held that with the record before it, the plaintiff had obtained the leave to serve the defendants outside jurisdiction, saying that “this objection also fails in its entirety and therefore resolved in favour of the plaintiff.”

On the issue of irregular signature on the plaintiff’s motion for mandatory injunction, Justice Okeke ruled that the defendants had not proved that the signature was not that of the plaintiff’s lead counsel, Kayode Ajulo, adding that the objection was also resolved in Ojougboh’s favour.

Consequently, the judge held that “the defendants’ application fails in its entirety and it is hereby dismissed with a cost of N7, 000 awarded to the plaintiff.”

The judge subsequently adjourned hearing in the substantive suit till November 13th, 2012.

In the suit, the former presidential aide sought the removal of the alleged offensive statement of Okonta over the March 3rd, 2012 Ward Congresses of PDP from the website of the media house that published it.

He further claimed that Okonta’s claim of masterminding an attack on him; projected him (Ojougboh) as wicked, cruel, barbaric and a savage “as well as an incurable mischief-maker whose judgment cannot be trusted and unfit to be associated with professionally, as a family man, medical doctor, statesman, leader and businessman.”