Court hears The Nation’s editor’s suit against senate Nov 9

A Federal High Court in Lagos has further adjourned hearing till November 9, 2015 in a suit filed by the editor of The Nation Newspaper, Mr. Gbenga Omotosho, against the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.

Omotosho is seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Senate from inviting him for questioning over a features story published in The Nation newspaper of July 30, 2015.

The presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Yunusa had on September 4, 2015 given the Senate 30 days to respond to Omotosho’s suit and adjourned till Tuesday for definite hearing.

But the case could not go on on Tuesday as the judge did not sit.

Omotosho had headed for the court following a threat by the Senate, in a letter dated August 5, 2015, to invoke Section 89(1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution against him if he failed to willingly appear for questioning.

The same threat was also issued on one of The Nation’s reporters, Imam Bello, who wrote the story titled “Motion: 22 APC Northern senators working against Buhari,” which the Senate committee considered to be offensive.

The committee had invited Omotosho and Bello to come and to prove the authenticity of their allegation.

But the applicants, who considered the Senate invitation to be an infringement on their fundamental right to freedom of expression under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, are seeking an order of perpetual injunction barring their invitation.

The applicants’ counsel, Mr. Wahab Shittu, contended that Section 88 and 89 of the Constitution, which the Senate relied upon, did not confer any power on it to summon Omotosho, Bello and the publisher of the The Nation Newspapers, Vintage Press Limited, to answer any question.

Shittu, who maintained that The Nation got the information published in the story from competent sources, both formal and informal, argued that the newspaper was protected by law to conceal the identities of its sources in keeping with the ethics of journalism.

He argued that rather than summon the applicants, the only available option opened to the National Assembly was to sue the applicants for libel or slander if it thought that it had valid claims.

Justice Yunusa had, on August 21, 2015, made an order of interim injunction restraining the Senate from issuing a bench warrant to compel the  applicants’ appearance before it, pending the determination of the applicants’ suit.

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