Court Awards N25m In Favour Ex-Oyo State Governor's Daughter, Ajibola Ajayi Against Linda Ikeji

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Court Awards N25m In Favour Ex-Oyo State Governor's Daughter, Ajibola Ajayi Against Linda Ikeji

A FCT High Court has awarded N25 million damages against gossip blogger, Linda Ikeji for allegedly defaming Mrs Ajibola Ajayi.

Linda reacting on Twitter said she will appeal the case as judgement was gotten without her knowledge.

The Law firm of Olaniwun Ajayi LP had taken to Twitter to rejoice over the ruling.

It announced that its has successfully prosecuted the case against the controversial gossip merchant in suit number FCT/CV/667/2018: Mrs Ajibola Ajayi v. Linda Ikeji before an FCT Abuja High court.

In the court case, the Mrs Ajibola Ajayi had sued Ms. Linda Ikeji in respect of the defamatory article published in the latter’s blog, on 15.01.17 and 17.01.17 which cited Mrs. Ajibola Ajayi as having described protesting students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, as a “generation of mannerless children” in an Instagram post with the username “conceited_csj”.

Ajibola Ajayi is the daughter of late former governor of Oyo state, Abiola Ajimobi

In the judgment delivered on 12.04.2022, the Court held that the publication by Ms. Ikeji was false and malicious and that the evidence before the Court showed that the Defendant knew that the Instagram account with the username “conceited_csj” did not belong to the Claimant.

The Court further held that the publication was made available to readers worldwide which exposed the Claimant to ridicule by members of the public who read the offending article.

In reiterating the trite principle of law that libel is actionable per se, the Court awarded general and exemplary damages in the sum of N25,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Million Naira) against Ms. Linda Ikeji and directed Ms. Ikeji to publish a written apology to the Claimant in three National tabloids.