Court ordered Governor Ganduje to pay Jaafar and his newspaper the said amount for withdrawing a defamation suit against the publisher without a genuine reason.
The court had, on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, ordered Ganduje to pay the said amount as a fine after he discontinued his defamation suit against the online publication, Daily Nigerian.
The governor had dragged the publisher to court over a story and videos where he was purportedly seen stuffing foreign currencies in his pocket.
The court, presided over by Justice Suleiman Danmallan, who granted the application to discontinued the case, however directed the governor to pay N400,000 each to Ja’afar and parent company of the newspaper, both defendants in the suit.
But Jaafar has confirmed to our reporter that the governor is yet to obey the court order 30 days after its judgment.
He said neither him nor his lawyers were contacted so far by the governor over the issue.
In the counter-claim filed by Jaafar, a copy of which was seen by Daily Trust, the publisher asked the court to declare that the governor’s case was “vexatious, baseless, gold digging and of no substance whatsoever.”
He thereafter asked the court to direct the governor “to issue a public apology to the 1st defendant in at least two national daily newspapers for filing a baseless case against the 1st defendant.”
The judge has, however, directed that a date would be fixed for hearing of the counter-claim when the parties are ready.
Daily Trust reports that Daily Nigerian had in October 2018 released some videos allegedly showing Governor Ganduje stuffing dollars in his pocket, suspected to be kickbacks from contractors.
The governor has, however, denied the authenticity of the videos, alleging that they were doctored to defame his character.
