In a dramatic legal twist that has captured national attention, an Ogun State High Court sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta, has ordered the Gbengande of Ososa Ijebu, Oba Adetoye Alatishe, to pay a whopping ₦500 million in damages to prominent industrialist and Chairman of Rite Foods, Dr. Sulaiman Adegunwa, over a defamatory petition that smeared the business mogul’s character.
Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice E. Osinuga held that the monarch’s baseless allegations constituted libel, following a petition he wrote to former governor Ibikunle Amosun in January 2019. The damaging claims were later published in City People Magazine (August 7, 2019) and Obanta Newsday (August 2019), prompting Adegunwa to take legal action when the monarch refused to retract or apologize.
“When asked about the source of his information, the monarch simply said ‘some people told me’, yet he declined to name them,” Justice Osinuga said, criticizing the monarch for acting recklessly without credible evidence.
The court awarded:
-
₦500 million in general damages for defamation
-
₦500,000 as legal costs
-
A perpetual injunction restraining Oba Alatishe from ever defaming Adegunwa again
-
An order to publish apologies and retractions in The Punch, The Nation, and ThisDay newspapers
Adegunwa, who sought ₦5 billion in exemplary damages, said he was forced to seek legal redress after the defamatory publications caused significant harm to his reputation as a respected entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The court concluded that the monarch had “no factual or evidentiary basis” for the claims, and his refusal to retract them only worsened his liability.
