Fashola files N2b libel suit against CEO of Sunrise Power, Adesanya

01 Dec Fashola files N2b libel suit against CEO of Sunrise Power, Adesanya

Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola has filed N2 billion defamation suit against the Chief Executive Officer of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, Leno Olaitan Adesanya, over alleged libelous publications against him in two national dailies.

In a statement of claim in a suit he filed at a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Fashola accused Adesanya of making false and disparaging publications against him in two prominent newspapers on January 11 and 16, 2019, on Mambilla Power Project.

In the publications, Adesanya was said to have accused the minister of frustrating the completion of the project and engaging in acts of malfeasance while he was the Minister of Power, Works and Housing.

Fashola claimed that the advertorial, titled: Mambila Power Project: Open Letter to Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and sponsored by Adesanya “amounts to nothing less than character assassination with a view to achieving damaging effects against the claimant (Fashola)”.

“The defendants published the disparaging and defamatory materials with the main purpose of destroying the claimant’s credit and reputation by publishing invented, untrue and malicious falsehood about him,” the minister said.

At the mention of the case yesterday, Fashola’s lawyer, Charles Edosomwan (SAN), averred that it was only the second defendant (one of the newspapers) that had filed any response on the matter.

Justice Sylvester Oriji said the first and third defendants still had the required seven days to file their responses.

The judge adjourned till December 6 for hearing of a pending application filed by the claimant.