Court strikes out N100m libel suit against PUNCH..hmm and Punch is still the source of this news

A High Court sitting in Lagos has struck out a N100m libel suit filed by a former Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government, Elder Effiong Esang, against PUNCH Nigeria Limited

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Justice Opeyemi Oke on Wednesday struck out the suit, which was over nine years old, following the claimant’s inability to appear before the court once in that period.The presiding judge also awarded N250,000 cost in favour of the defendant.

Esang had filed for damages for alleged libel against the defendant following a press statement from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, which it published in August 2006, involving him.

But since the suit was filed on September 7, 2006, and after several adjournments, neither the claimant nor the second witness, Ubong Awah, ever showed up in court.

Oke, therefore, struck out the suit, describing it as an “eye sore and a bad image” on the part of the prosecution.

She dismissed an application by the counsel for the claimant, Mr. David Angye, to adjourn the matter to another date, to give his client and witness another opportunity to appear in court.

Angye had pleaded for the court’s understanding, saying Esang was ill and in Calabar, Cross River State and that Awah was out of the country.

Oke, however, said, “I strongly condemn the application for adjournment and I find no merit in this application. I, therefore, strike it (the suit) out.”

She said an attempt by the court to grant the application would mean that it lacked understanding of its job and essence.

Describing the court as a place for “serious business”, she added, “The court is not a dumping ground for cases.”

The counsel for the defendant, Mrs. Ayo Obe, had earlier asked the court to strike out the suit for lack of “unseriousness of the claimant”, and award the sum of N500,000 to defendant as cost for what it had been put through.

Obe had also informed the court that the aggregate sum of N60,000 it earlier ordered the claimant to pay the defendant had not been paid.

In her final ruling, Oke said, “I’m awarding N250,000 in favour of the defendant.”