Akpabio’s N50m largesse war: DGN, AMP sue ANCOP president, Alex Eyengho for N150m damages

Zik Zulu Okafor

The controversy trailing the N50 million grant by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State to support the Nigerian movie industry, during the week took a new twist with the two Presidents of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) Andy Amenechi and the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Zik Zulu Okafor filing a N150 million libel suit against ANCOP president, Mr. Alex Eyengho, at the High Court of Lagos State.

In the suit No LD/ADR/440/13, the lawyer to the claimants, Anthony Emeka Odikpo, is praying the court to grant his clients N150 million as damages for libel.

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According to Odikpo, the defendant, Eyengho, on or about August 19, 2013, "maliciously and with intent to destroy the character of the claimants" published false words about the claimants in a petition to the Police Special Fraud Unit, Milverton Road, Ikoyi, where he categorically accused them of squandering the N50 million grant given to the industry by Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Obot Akpabio.

The counsel to the claimants without mincing words tells Eyengho, "it is unfortunate that you have taken your petulance to this ridiculous dimension of assassinating the character of our clients to all and sundry. It is equally unfortunate that you ensured that this your scurrilous publication went viral by sending it to all manner of internet blogs.

You have finally reached the nadir by ensuring that the same missive is published in Saturday Vanguard of August 31, 2013. These your actions have caused our clients considerable distress as all manner of inquiries have been streaming in from across the globe. The reputations built by our clients through the years have been besmeared by you".

The counsel warned that the totality of Eyengho's publication in its ordinary and natural meaning inputs criminality to the persons of the claimants and has thus brought them to public scandal, hatred, odium and contempt.

According to him, "The defendant published the said words out of malevolence and spite and ensured that the publication received the widest possible coverage". This is why, he says, "the defendant should be made to pay aggravated or exemplary damages to the claimants.

The fiery counsel, however, gave the defendant a leeway to issue a retraction of his spurious allegations within five days from September 9, 2013 and to commence immediate negotiations with the claimants' lawyers on payment of damages.

The failure to take the window of opportunity according to Odikpo, is the option of N150 million claim as damages against the defendant, plus an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant by himself or by his servants, agents and privies from further publication of the said defamatory or similar words.

The counsel, however, described his clients, Amenechi and Okafor as credible professionals with untrammelled integrity; movie practitioners who have given so much to Nollywood that they deserve to be revered rather than being maligned or subjected to infamy by people like the defendant, Mr. Eyengho.

As he put it, "the likes of Mr. Eyengho must be brought to face the full force of the law to serve as a deterrent to some other frivolous characters that do not weigh the gravity of their statements against other people."