Court grants Tinubu interlocutory injunction against AIT on "Lion of Bourdilion" documentary

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has restrained the African Independent Television (AIT) from further airing a documentary on All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Justice Olamide Akinkugbe granted the applicant’s request for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining AIT from airing the documentary on Asiwaju Tinubu. The judge granted the order while ruling on an application brought before the court by Tinubu’s counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun. Justice Akinkugbe had earlier on March 16, 2015, granted an interim order against AIT after hearing an ex parte motion filed by the applicant. Ruling on the matter yesterday, Justice Akinkugbe said the interlocutory injunction was pending the determination of the substantive N150 billion libel suit filed by the former Lagos State governor against Daar Communications Plc, owners of AIT.
Justice Akinkugbe held that the continued airing of the documentary titled: “Lion of Bourdilion”, would affect the res of the suit, which was the reputation of the applicant. The judge also held that if the court allowed the station to continue with the broadcast of the documentary, which it started on March 1, 2015, the applicant cannot be adequately compensated. “I hereby order an interlocutory injunction in this suit, restraining the defendant from further airing, publishing, disseminating and broadcasting the documentary, ‘Lion of Bourdilion’, which it started broadcasting on March 1, pending the determination of the substantive suit,” the judge said. Justice Akinkugbe adjourned the matter till April 16, 2015 for further hearing. Asiwaju Tinubu had filed the suit against Daar Communications Plc, for defamation of character, following the airing of the documentary, which depicted him as a corrupt politician.
According to him, the documentary was politically sponsored to tarnish his reputation in the eyes of the public He had subsequently asked the court for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining AIT whether by itself, agents, privies and or other persons from producing or continuing to broadcast the documentary. Chief Olanipekun, while moving the application at the hearing, had asked the court to restrain the defendant from airing the documentary, pending the determination of the substantive suit. He disagreed with the submission of AIT that most of the contents in the said documentary were already on various online publications, saying it was not an excuse to continue to broadcast the document. But AIT’s counsel Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) had submitted before the court that the said documentary was last aired on March 6, 2015. Ozekhome said the station had since stopped the broadcast of the documentary following the earlier order of the court.
The defendant had maintained that the content of the documentary were facts, which had been in the public domain for over two decades and published independently prior to the broadcast. He exhibited other previous articles written about Asiwaju Tinubu, which he claimed were not challenged by the applicant till date.
He contended that Tinubu was a former senator, two-time governor of Nigeria’s most populous state and the leader of the APC, which claims to be an anti-corruption political party. He argued that the station has a responsibility to its audience to scrutinise public officers, adding that Tinubu had not shown how the said documentary had damaged his reputation. He, therefore, asked the court to dismiss the application, emphasising that Tinubu had failed to show that he could not be adequately compensated for the damages if the broadcast of the documentary was allowed to continue.