Court orders Halima Abubakar to pay N10m as damages to Apostle Suleman for defaming clergyman
Halima Abubakar has been ordered to pay popular clergyman and General Overseer of Omega Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman N10m as damages.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court gave the order to the actress for publishing derogatory comments against the clergyman. The court had also restrained the movie star from further publishing defamatory statements against him.
The cleric, while giving a verdict on the several allegations Halima made against the clergyman through her Instagram handle said her statements were falsely and maliciously written and published to the general public.
Giving his judgment, Justice Enobie Obanor noted that Abubakar was allowed to defend herself in the matter but failed to do so.
The judgment read, “This issue is therefore resolved in favor of the claimant. Accordingly, judgment is entered in favor of the claimant as follows:
“A declaration that the statements published by the defendant against the claimant on her Instagram handle @halimabubakar, falsely and maliciously written and published to the general public, are defamatory of the person of the claimant.
The sum of N10,000,000.00 only to the claimant as aggravated and exemplary damages for libel contained in the publication of the defendant against the claimant on her Instagram handle @Halimabubakar and caused to be published in several blogs.”
To add to it, the judge also ordered Abubakar to publish a retraction of her defamatory statements on her Instagram handle @Halimabubakar.
“An order of this Honourable Court compelling the defendant to pay for the deleting of all links and reportage of the said defamatory comments on all platforms on the internet”.
For three months, Halima opened up on her affair with Apostle Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministry, revealing how the clergyman reached out to her and how their affair began.
The then-ailing actress insisted that she never knew Suleman was married as he told her that he was separated, and she pleaded with him countless times to reconcile with his wife, but he remained adamant.
Halima claimed that Apostle Suleman proposed to her seven times but she rejected his proposal. Unbothered by the rejection, he involved the actress’s parents in their affair and had a wedding introduction with her.
Responding to her allegations, Apostle Suleman dragged Halima Abubakar to court, demanding N1billion as damages.
In his suit, he accused Halima of publishing damaging, malicious, and defamatory statements about him and demanded she retract her statement in some selected National Newspapers.