Human rights advocate Omoyele Sowore submitted a groundbreaking defence in a libel claim against Kayode Fayemi, the former governor of Ekiti State, and Sahara Reporters Limited.
Fayemi has asked the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja for more time to consider the defence.
With Fayemi as the claimant and Mr. Omoyele Sowore, Chairman of Sahara Reporters Limited and Sahara Reporters Limited as the first and second defendants, Sowore filed a 47-paragraph joint statement of defence in June 2024 in suit No. FCT/HC/CV 2062/2021.
According to Sowore’s declaration, the claimant is an unreliable thief.
He claims that Fayemi has no reputation to defend and requests that the court dismiss the lawsuit with significant expenses.
On June 10, 2024, Sowore’s attorney, Tope Temokun Esq., filed the statement, claiming that the people of Ekiti State and Nigeria saw Fayemi differently despite his claims of piety and incorruptibility.
The High Court of Ekiti State accused Fayemi with financial impropriety charges in January 2018 (Charge No: HAD/5c/2018 – The State Vs. Dr. John Kayode Fayemi and Mr. Vincent Dapo Kolawole), he noted.
Criminal contempt, misuse of office, seeking to thwart or thwart the administration of justice, and refusing to comply with a witness summons were among the charges.
Furthermore, according to the defendants, Fayemi obtained a N20 billion bank loan to construct an international cargo airport in Ado Ekiti, even though he turned down Aare Afe Babalola’s offer to help with the project, arguing that the state had enough money to finish the airport.
He added that although Fayemi claimed the cargo airport in Ado-Ekiti was a world-class facility, it was not yet finished when it was opened on October 15, 2022.
S.I. Amen (SAN), Fayemi’s attorney, begged the court to postpone the case till Wednesday so that he could review the defendant’s defence, submit a reply, and call witnesses for the case’s resumed hearing in Apo Court 12.
The request came after Sowore filed his defence on June 10, 2024. Temokun, the first and second defendants’ attorney, stated that the purpose of his application for a time extension was to regularise the defence that had already been filed.
As a result, the trial judge, Hon. Justice A.O. Otaluka, postponed the case until March 17, 2025, in order to continue the trial.