A Federal High Court in Abuja has vacated the order restraining
ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo from
publishing, printing or offering for sale, his controversial
autobiography titled “My
Watch.” which had been in the custody of the Nigerian Customs Service
since 2014 following a N20billion libel lawsuit by PDP chieftain, Buruji
Kashamu, asking the court to stop the distribution of the book because
of some things Obasanjo wrote about him in the book. In the book,
Obasanjo described Buruji as a fugitive wanted in the US. A court, last
year, ordered security and law enforcement agencies including customs
to confiscate the book anywhere they saw the book.
But on Monday, Justice Valentine Ashi who in December 2014 placed a ban
on the book, vacated his earlier order on the ground that
the plaintiff and a PDP chieftain, Buruji
Kashamu, suppressed
fact from the court to obtain the order.
According to Justice Ashi,
Kashamu who had approached the court saying that the book was libelous,
did not prove that the book was indeed libelous. Lead counsel to the
former President, Mr Agabi proved to Justice Ashi in court that he was
misled by the plaintiff.
Justice Ashi afterwards set aside
his order directing the Inspector General of Police (IG), the
Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the
Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) to recover the published book from
all book stands, sales agents, vendors, the sea and airports and deposit
them with his court’s registrar pending the determination of the
substantive suit.
He also restrained the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) from
charging demurrage on copies of the book already confiscated. The case
was adjourned to
May 25 for further hearing.
Source:
Vanguard
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