The Omoyele Sowore led Saharareporters, has taken steps to appeal the judgment of the Justice Sikiru Adeyinka Oyinloye of Kwara State High Court which ruled that the sum of N4billion damages be awarded to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, in a controversial libel suit.
Meanwhile the founder of the news website Omoyele Sowore has described the June 28 ruling of Justice Oyinloye which awarded Saraki N4 billion damages as fraudulent and dodgy.
According to sources Saharareporters has mounted a strong challenge to the court decision, which it claimed contains a plethora of curiosities.
In the suit No. KWS/23/2017 filed by Saraki’s lawyer disclosed that the Senate Presient was defamed in several reports and opinion articles published on SaharaReporters between September and December 2015.
In a motion on notice filed by SaharaReporters’ lawyers, Falana & Falana Chambers, the website and its founder are seeking an order extending the time within which they may apply to set aside the entire proceedings in the suit and the court judgment. They are also seeking an order setting aside the entire proceedings in the suit as well as another setting aside Justice Oyinloye’s judgement.
SaharaReporters in the motion also said that the court lacked the jurisdiction to have entertained the suit, stating that neither it nor its publisher was served the originating processes in the suit.
It also contends that the signatures on the originating processes, apart from the writ of summons, are not ascribable to any of the lawyers whose names later appeared.
In addition, the lawyers affirmed that the website cannot be sued as it is not a legal entity known to law. SaharaReporters, the lawyers added, is an organization incorporated in the United States and without any known address in Nigeria.
