Court Orders Actress Halima Abubakar to Pay N10 Million in Damages to Apostle Johnson Suleman

The Federal Capital Territory High Court has ruled that Nigerian actress Halima Abubakar must pay N10 million in damages to Apostle Johnson Suleman, the General Overseer of Omega Ministries International. This order comes after the actress made derogatory comments about the clergyman in a public forum.

In addition to the damages, the court has issued a directive prohibiting Abubakar from making any further defamatory statements about Apostle Suleman.

The cleric, addressing the allegations made by Halima on his instagram account, stated that her statements were both false and maliciously disseminated to the public.

Justice Enobie Obanor, in delivering the verdict revealed that Abubakar had the opportunity to defend herself in the case but did not seize it.

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”.