A former Special Adviser to the Kano state governor, Anas Abba Dala, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Muktar Dahiru, a staff of Radio Nigeria’s Pyramid FM.
Dala alleges that Dahiru made false and damaging statements about him on social media, including accusations of adultery and abandoning his elderly mother.
Briefing newsmen on the misconception surrounding the legal tussle explained that he was compelled to seek redress in the court against the Daily Continuity Announcer for calling him an “adulterer and a wayward son who abandoned his 85 years old mother hawking on the street.”
The former aide claims that Dahiru’s statements have harmed his reputation and seeks redress in court, according to Independent.
Dahiru, a Daily Continuity Announcer, was remanded at the correctional centre by a Kano Magistrate court 24 for alleged criminal conspiracy, defamation of character and insult against the plaintiff, contrary to section 97, 391 & 115 of the penal code.
Dala maintains that he took legal action to protect his integrity and image, and not on behalf of the government.
He insisted that he was compelled to drag Dahiru to court to reclaim his integrity and image under threat.
“Firstly, I did not sue him on behalf of the government because I am not a government agent or official. The reason why i took him to court was because Dahiru is not from Kaduna and he used his platform to reign insult on me.
“Dahiru used his social media handle to accused me of engaging in adultery, that I left my mother hawking on the streets, that I can’t read or write, that I cannot even recite the first chapter of the Quran (al-fatiha), that I am an adulterer.
“He brought someone from Niger state accusing me of impregnating a certain woman, he placed all these on his platform. He duet my picture and his and also used a voice claiming that I was insulting the Vice President Kashim Shetima. I have all the videos as evidence. He placed all these allegations against me on his social media platforms”. Dala claimed.
“So I didn’t go to the police in the begining, I went to Magistrate Court where I sued him. The court then instructed the police at Zone one to investigate the matter. We got him arrested even after he made attempts to escape.
“The matter was then taken to court where he was accused of insult, conspiracy and defamation of character. His lawyers came, there is one Jafar Sani Bello, his Counsels demanded that he be released on bail. It was Jafar Sani Bello that provided the lawyers for him”, Dala explained.
