Akakan Umoh
After losing a defamation case, UK-based blogger Maureen Badejo was ordered £100,000 in damages to Daniel Olukoya, founder of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), and his wife, Folashade.
In April 2021, the Queen’s Bench Division of the UK High Court of Justice ordered Ms Badejo to pay £65,000 to Olukoya and £35,000 to his wife for defamatory posts she made on her social media accounts.
The UK High Court of Appeal also directed her to publicly retract the defamatory statements and publish a summary of the judgment on her social media platforms for a period of 10 consecutive days as a corrective measure and as a means of ensuring that her “misguided and misinformed audience” gets to know about the court’s Decision.
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Ms Badejo, who runs Gio TV, was accused of using Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to blackmail Dr Olukoya and the church.
She claimed that Dr Olukoya and his ministry cheated the United States Government by selling books there without paying taxes.
The blogger also said that an MFM pastor in the UK paid £150,000 into Olukoya’s personal account and then went to Nigeria to ask for help hiding fraud.
Justice Lavender of the UK High Court of Appeal, Queen’s Bench Division, delivered the appeal judgment and confirmed the earlier decisions in case number QB-2020-003625.
The judge confirmed the orders made by Master Thormett on April 13, 2021, and February 3, 2022, and rejected Ms Badejo’s appeal completely.t the online publications concerning Dr Olukoya and his wife were false and defamatory, noting that the allegations lacked any factual basis.
He also refused to let Ms Badejo appeal, saying her application did not meet the legal requirements, saying the application lacked merit and that, under CPR 52.4(3), the decision could not be reconsidered at an oral hearing.
“Insofar as the defendant seeks permission to appeal against Master Thormett’s order of 3 February 2022, her proposed grounds of appeal are both hopeless and pointless,” the court held.
The court stressed that individuals are entitled to protection against defamatory publications and warned that false accusations circulated online attract legal consequences. It added that freedom of expression does not extend to publishing false statements capable of damaging reputations.
On February 9, 2021, an Ogun State High Court in Nigeria also ruled against Ms Badejo, ordering her to pay N500 million in damages to MFM and its General Overseer for defamation.
The Nigerian case, filed in September 2020, asked for N10 billion in aggravated and exemplary damages. Justice Abiodun Akinyemi ordered Ms Badejo to take down the offending online posts and to publish a written apology and retraction on her social media and in at least three national newspapers.
The judge described her actions as “reckless defamation” and an “evil use of the internet and social media.
