You Can’t Win Libel Suit Against Daily Trust, Kperogi Warns Fani-kayode

Media scholar and columnist, Farooq Kperogi, has described moves by Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) against Daily trust, as needless and that which has tendencies to further destroy him.

In a series of tweets on his official Twitter handle, @farooqkperogi on Tuesday, he advised that the former aviation minister withdraw threats against Daily Trust and “lick his wounds”, to avoid inciting steps by the newspaper to prove his connection to drugs.

“Whoever advised FFK to sue Daily Trust over a scathingly unflattering opinion article that an occasional contributor to the paper’s opinion pages wrote about him doesn’t love him, ” Kperogi said.

Recall that FFK, earlier on Tuesday demanded N6 billion as compensation from Daily Trust newspapers for allegedly defaming him.

The newspaper had published an opinionated piece titled “The Drug Addled Thug In Designer Wears”, where FFK was described as a “drug addict”.

Tweeting on the published article by Daily trust, Kperogi explained that most virulent things encapsulated in the report qualified as opinion and fair comment in media law and are not actionable.

“The only potentially libelous statement in the piece is the claim that Fani-Kayode is a drug addict who had been treated, without success in psychiatric hospitals in Ghana (and other places) but who hasn’t recovered from his drug addiction.

“That’s not an opinion that enjoys constitutional protection; it is a statement that implies a definitive habit of moral turpitude that can be proven to be either true or false,” he said.

He, however, posited that truth is a defence in libel, and proceeding with the lawsuit would only compel the newspaper to “prove that he was indeed a drug addict who had been treated at psychiatric hospitals”.

He noted that such action if proven would expose FFK to even more public ridicule; his reputation, “irretrievably sullied that he would become what defamation lawyers call a “libel-proof plaintiff,” that is, someone whose reputation is already so thoroughly damaged that no libelous statement can damage it further”.

Being a public figure who willfully thrusts himself into public consciousness, influence national conversations, Kperogi enjoined him to withdraw his threats against Daily Trust as individuals like him (FFK), seldom win libel cases.

“If the man is wise, he should just lick his wounds quietly and withdraw his threat against Daily Trust. It would hurt him more than it would help him,” kperogi said.