Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has threatened to sue the publishers of Daily Trust newspaper, Media Trust Limited over the newspaper’s recent publication regarding his conduct towards a Daily Trust reporter at a press conference.
A letter dated August 31, 2020, with the subject: “Re: Defamation of the character of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, by Iliyasu Gadu,” signed by Adeola Adedipe of Ahmed Raji and Co, stated that “We represent Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in respect of the afore-described subject matter.
Our Client’s attention has been drawn to a spurious publication that was made at your instance, on 30th August 2020, under the caption: ‘FFK, The drug-addled thug in designer wears’ on the Daily Trust print media, and the online platform.
“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.
The letter further states that: “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 Femi Fani-Kayode experience was needless and plainly avoidable. But something tells me it won’t be the last. There is the feeling today in power circles that because of the ascendancy of the Internet and its platforms of social engagements, the press as we knew it is now impotent and could be humiliated and called stupid without consequences. The truth of the media’s undying powers should be clear in what Femi just went through…
Nigerian Tribune