Magazine to pay Governor Adams Oshiomhole N25m over published false story of impregnanting a student

A Benin High Court has awarded Edo State
Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, N25million
as damages in a libel suit he instituted
against the publishers of News of the
People, a soft sell weekly magazine.
Governor Oshiomhole had dragged the soft
sell weekly magazine to court demanding
N250million as damages over their report
with the headline: ‘Oshiomhole’s sex power
exposed: Impregnates young girl six
months after death of wife.”
The magazine had reported that Governor
Oshiomhole impregnated a student of the
state-owned, Ambrose Alli University,
Ekpoma, bought the said girl a jeep and
interfered in the academic activities of
Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, on behalf
of the girl, adding that Governor
Oshiomole used sexual performance
enhancement drugs and that he had
performed traditional marriage rites
precedent to marriage between him and
the said girl.
The governor told the court that
he demanded damages because
the said publication caused him
and his children psychological trauma, six
months after the death of his wife, as the
libelous piece was widely circulated, to
coincide with preparations for one of his
daughter’s wedding.
He said:
“When I called a brother governor to
sponsor my daughter’s wedding, the
governor said he was confused, and asked
me if I was the one doing the marriage or
my daughter. He added that he was
reading a magazine which said that I was
about getting married to a university
student, and that the said wife-to-be was
already pregnant.”
In his judgment, the trial Judge, Justice Efe
Ikponmwen, also ordered the magazine to
publish a well-worded retraction and
apology in a similarly conspicous manner in
an edition of the magazine.
He held that the governor’s evidence
proved that the magazine’s publication was
libelous, and that even though the public
has a right to know about a public officer,
such information should be in line with the
law and must not be in bad light.