Gani Adams, the Aareonakakanfo of Yorubaland, has filed a lawsuit against Yoruba Nation activist Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, commonly known as Igboho, in an Oyo State High Court in Ibadan.
The suit stems from Igboho recording and publicly releasing Adams’s private phone conversation without his consent.
Adams, who is also the National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress, filed the suit, numbered M/1006/2024, to enforce his fundamental rights, claiming that Igboho’s actions have caused him significant harm in his capacity as Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland.
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In a Motion on Notice dated October 15, 2024, which was obtained in Osogbo on Sunday, Adams seeks a declaration affirming his right to privacy regarding his home, correspondence, telephone conversations, and telegraphic communications.
He also asked the court to declare that “it is unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional for anyone to surreptitiously record a private telephone conversation between other persons without the consent and authority of the parties involved.”
Adams further stated that Igboho’s act of publishing or broadcasting the private telephone conversation via social media, without his authority, was malicious and a severe breach of his fundamental right to privacy. He sought “a declaration that the respondent’s act of publishing or broadcasting the private telephone conversation to the general public through social media, without the applicant’s knowledge, approval, and authority, is a malicious, egregious, reckless, and gross violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to privacy as guaranteed under Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), calculated to cause severe harm to his exalted office of the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland.”
He also requested “the sum of N5,000,000,000.00 (five billion naira only) as general and exemplary damages against the respondent for the reckless breach of his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights.”
In a 13-paragraph affidavit supporting his motion, Adams stated, “Sometime in April 2024, the respondent appeared on social media, claiming to possess a recorded private telephone conversation between the applicant and one Mr Nurudeen Banjo, based in the United States of America.
“Since then, the respondent has repeatedly and maliciously attacked the applicant in both traditional and social media, accusing the applicant of labelling him as a political thug, mercenary, murderer, and fraudster, based on the content of the covertly recorded private telephone conversation.”
Adams added that “the public exposure of his private telephone conversation with a third party, covertly recorded and maliciously published by the respondent without his knowledge, consent, or authority, has not only violated his private and fundamental rights but also caused him serious embarrassment among numerous Nigerians.”
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