Posted by By Sun News Publishing on
Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Olu Jegede, has protested against contents of an advertorial published in Daily Sun of August 23, 2007, claiming it defamed him.
Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Olu Jegede, has protested against contents of an advertorial published in Daily Sun of August 23, 2007, claiming it defamed him.
The renowned academic described the publication entitled The Sariyu Funke Alade and Professor Olu Jegede illicit love affairs: The true story, and placed by Alhaji Mudashir Akande, as overtly false, malicious, and libelous.
By the publication, the professor said in a petition written by his attorney, Chief Mamman Mike Osuman (SAN) of Mamman Mike Osuman and Co. Fati Chambers, that his reputation and esteem as a scholar, administrator, family man and public figure has been gravely injured, demeaned and substantially reduced.
According to the lawyer, Prof. Jegede must have been understood by the ordinary right-thinking members of the public as: 'being not a fit and proper person to occupy the position of the Vice Chancellor of the NOUN that will groom and produce responsible graduates and future leaders; having illicit affairs with Mrs Sariyu Funke Akande; being dishonourable, irresponsible and undisciplined; being callous and of doubtful moral credentials and a criminal and being morally bankrupt and adulterer that could, as head of such high institution, produce into the Nigerian society and the larger world misfits in all ramifications."
The petition held that the NOUN chief executive was also likely to be understood as: having been a lover to Mrs Akande while she was married to Mufutau Bamidele Akande; that he is Sariyu Funke's new lover; that he had been arraigned and/or cited in court and now undergoing a criminal trial for criminal inducement, abduction and adultery, and that he incessantly called and texted to the woman, using amorous words.
Other impressions the public is likely to gain from the publication, the lawyer said, are include:
•The professor was and still having sexual relationships with the said Sariyu Funke.
•He resisted discountenanced and totally disapproved of entreaties from the woman's family to desist from continuing with an amorous relationship with her.
•Whilst having an amorous relationship with Sariyu Funke, he has been sending threats to her husband; and that,
•he does not have regard for the rule of law, has been hiding, perverted the course of justice, evading service of court processes and failed to answer and/or put up defences.
While denying the allegations, the lawyer regretted that his client was not given fair hearing, adding that since the publication, 'numerous persons within and outside Nigeria have inundated our client with calls, short messages and electronic mails. His children, members of his church, place of employment, family and a host of well-meaning persons have expressed consternation at what your paper in conjunction with Alhaji Mudashir Akande has published as the character of our client.
The fact of your paper being on website, explains the depth and scope of the injury your false and malicious publication has caused and will continue to cause our client."
Editor's Note
We have no interest in this matter whatsoever and are in no position to take sides with either party. We, however, expect that the two parties to this case should sort themselves out in mutually agreeable terms. We will continue to hold the parties in high esteem until proved otherwise.