A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has been urged by the counsel to the Socio-Economic and Accountability Project (SERAP), Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), to dismiss a suit against his client by two operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The counsel, who spoke at the adoption of her written address on Thursday, wants the N5 billion defamation suit dismissed.
Oyetibo, who was represented by Victoria Bassey from Tayo Oyetibo Chambers, urged the court to dismiss the suit in its entirety, stating that it lacked merit.
Judgment has been reserved at a date to be communicated to the parties.
The two DSS operatives: Sarah John and Gabriel Ogundele, had sued SERAP for defamation following the accusation that DSS operatives invaded its Abuja office in 2024.
According to Bassey, the suit was misconceived because the claimants did not establish that the words complained of referred to them personally.
The address of the counsel said: “The law is firmly settled that in an action for defamation, the burden lies squarely on the claimant to prove, as a threshold and indispensable requirement that the words complained of were published or were published of and concerning him personally.
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“This requirement is not cosmetic as it goes to the very root of the cause of action and failure to establish it is fatal.
“It is common ground that none of the publications complained of mentioned the claimants by name, rank, photograph or office.
“They referred generically to ‘officers from Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) as an institution.”
According to Bassey, the claimants have not established that the complaints of SERAP referred to them, adding: “There is no evidence whatsoever that a right-thinking individual reasonably understood the words complained of to refer to either claimants personally.”
In his adoption of address, counsel to the claimants, Oluwagbemileke Kehinde, urged the court to grant all the reliefs of the claimants.
Kehinde asked the court to discountenance the defendants’ defence, which he described as incompetent.
