Justice Suleiman Na-mallam of the Kano State High Court on Tuesday Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to pay N400,000 each to the publisher of Daily Nigerian, Ja’afar Ja’afar, and his company, Penlight Media Limited, for expenses incurred in a court case the governor filed over a controversial bribery video involving the governor.
Ganduje had been caught on video stuffing his pockets with wads of dollar bills suspected to be bribe from a contractor.
The video went viral on social media, and the governor sued Ja’afar and his newspaper for releasing the video clip.
He demanded from Jaafar a sum of N3 billion for defamation of his character.
He, however, filed an application through his counsel, Offiong Offiong, on June 28 to discontinue the case.
When the matter was called on Tuesday, counsel to Ja’afar, U. U. Eteng, and counsel to Penlight Media Limited, publishers of Daily Nigerian, M. B. Azumi, did not object to the application to discontinue the case, but demanded N400 million as part of terms to discontinue the suit.
They also demanded that the governor publish an apology in national dailies.
In his ruling, Justice Na-mallam granted N400,000 each to Ja’afar and his company, Penlight Media Limited, but he was silent on the prayer by defendants to make a public apology in national dailies.
