Gombe Legislature Claim Damages Over Alleged Defamation Of Character By Kalshingi H Jedidah

Following a report published in one of the Nigerian national daily newspapers on Tuesday April 28th 2015, titled ‘ Gombe speaker orders removal of boreholes in Garin Bappi,’ the out going Speaker of  Gombe State House of Assembly Alh Inuwa Yahaya is seeking N205 million paid for what he themed as damage to his personality and integrity from the publication.

In a press conference he held with journalists over the matter Wednesday  in Gombe, the speaker stated that, the said allegation as reported by the paper was untrue and unfair to his name and personality.

He claimed that there are already ongoing projects worth N40 million at various communities within his constituency as his personal donation to his people.

Garba who is also past Chairman Conference of Speakers of Nigeria, vowed to take a legal action to claim damages, unless the newspaper organisation in question, apologise in the same manner the story was published.

The speaker who said he found the publication very embarrassing to his personality, family,and the institution he is representing also said, over 15 million people around the world have read the story through various media channels, and that the N 250 million  he is claiming are not worth 1% of his integrity.

Earlier, the journalist who reported the story, had issued a complain before Gombe State Police Command saying the speaker had issued a threat to him through a GSM call. According to him, the speaker had threatened to deal with him in any form, and that he threatened to drag him to court.

But the speaker denied issuing any threat, even as he admitted that  he only threatened to  take the matter to court.

Chairman Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Gombe State Council, Alhassan Yahaya said he had inaugurated a committee to look into the matter after which the necessary action would be taken.

He called on all working journalists in the state to always crosscheck their facts before reporting. Even as he said, the NUJ has enjoyed a good working relationship with speaker and the entire legislative  body in the state, and that the NUJ would continue to work toward sustaining the relationship.