Abuja High Court adjourns N500m defamation suit against Former Union Homes Company Secretary to Sept 25
An Abuja High Court sitting in Gudu in Gudu district of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT), Presided by
Honourable Justice Edward Okpe has adjourned further hearing in a N500 million libel/ defamation suit filed by Richard Bello(Claimant) to September 25, 2025.
Richard Bello, a one time Managing Director of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc between 2021 and 2022 had sued Maimuna Chionuma Omole, erstwhile Company Secretary of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc for allegedly defaming his character in a petition written to the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria(CIBN).
The adjournment followed a request by the defence Counsel, Mr Paul Kassim (SAN) of the City Law Firm, but however not opposed by the counsel to the claimant – Noah Abdul of O.J. Onoja SAN & Associates
In the suit no.- FCT/HC/CV/7525/2023, Bello seeks N500 million in damages, as well as court declarations that the statements made by the defendant through her solicitor against and concerning the claimant in the letter addressed to the President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria dated April 14, 2023 and further publications in Sahara Reporters and New Express Tv websites were libelous and defamatory of the claimant.
Bello is also asking the court to restrain the defendants and their associates from further acts of libel or defamation and to compel them to publish a retraction of the alleged defamatory statements in two national newspapers with prominent and wide circulation, apart from tendering an unequivocal apology in writing in respect of the defamatory statements.
In the defendant’s witness statement on Oath, the defendants admitted that she wrote a petition in line with the professional Ethics of Bankers of Nigeria to the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria of which the claimant and the defendant belonged adding that the letter was written and addressed only to Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria on occasion of qualified privileged.
The defendant also averred that the claimant has not shown anywhere where she made any defamatory statements in the letter in question, stressing that the petition written against the claimant are true, fair comment not defamatory and that the claimant has not suffered any loss, affirming her position as regards the criminal diversion of the proceeds of the compensation money belonging to Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc, Searaq Nigeria Ltd and Abule-Ado Building and Plumbing Material Dealers Association into Aso Savings and Loans account with Fidelity Bank Plc account no.5080014533, a non- party to the suits.
The defendant further posited that the compensation money in the sum of N2.5 billion paid by Lagos State government belongs to Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc and two others and not Aso Savings and Loans into whose account the money was criminally diverted.
The defendant also noted that she was never angered or embittered by the illegal termination of her employment, just as she left the company in good faith and not disengaged on the allegedly proven grounds of gross misconduct.
The defendant further averred that the claimant does not deserve the good character he ascribed to himself, as he is culpable in the alleged diversion, stressing that his acts of criminality is brazen, given the diversion of N1 billion out of the N1.6 billion she recovered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) and the N2.5 billion Lagos State compensation.
The defendant also said that the letter from O.J Onoja and Associates did not elicit any response from her because letters written by her lawyer to the bankers regulatory body was not defamatory as she was duty bound to protect clients’ money, being under obligation to report incidence of fraud, or attempted fraud and embezzlement of funds to the regulatory body.
The defendant urged the court to dismiss the suit in it’s entirety with substantial cost as same is incompetent, overreaching, lacking in merit, an abuse of court process and frivolous both in form and substance.
