Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has threatened to initiate a N5bn defamation lawsuit against the publishers of Daily Trust newspaper, Media Trust Limited following what he described as a defamatory article against him.
In a letter by his lawyer Iliyasu Gadu, signed by Adeola Adedipe of Ahmed Raji and Co, dated August 31, 2020, Fani-Kayode said his attention was drawn to a spurious allegation in a publication by the newspaper on August 30th, 2020 titled, ‘FFK, The drug-addled thug in designer wears’.
Fani-Kayode’s lawyer stated that, “In that hateful and malicious publication, you consciously elected to denigrate our Client, in the manner hereunder summarised as follows: that he is a dirty person and drug addict; he is a man of low esteem without dignity or reputation; that he is a pariah and disgrace to his State of Origin; he lacks character training in the best traditions of an English man and therefore unfit to be an alumnus of the prestigious Cambridge University and the University of London; he is not fit to have been called to the Nigerian Bar, as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria;” among other assertions.
“It is our instruction to intimate you of this grievous breach on the character and hard-earned reputation of our client with patent collateral damage on his pedigree.
“Be aware that our client has not only suffered an immeasurable loss of goodwill but he is currently confronted with unbearable opprobrium by his fans. followers and colleagues across the globe.
“Our Client is alive to his rights. both in law and equity but is disposed to afford you an opportunity to undo the evil you have done by retracting the said insalubrious remarks on the same Platform it was published and apologising to him in two other National Dailies.
“You are also advised to enter into negotiations with us for the sum of Six Billion Naira, being a token amount for penitence as opposed to the magnitude of infraction caused to our Client’s nobility.”
The former Minister has during a press conference in Calabar attacked a journalist who works with Daily Trust Newspaper.
