4 March 2003
Lagos — Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, Chinonye Obiagwu who alleged that a British journal, The Economist defamed him in a scam story on Nigeria and threatened court action to redeem his images. Roland Ogbonnaya writes
A Lagos based-lawyer and human right activist, Mr. Chinonye Obiagwu, was late last year invited by a Swedish human rights organisation, Foundation for Human Rights, to a conference and workshop where he delivered a paper on human rights situation in Nigeria. He was in Sweden for similar seminar in 2000 and 2001. Obiagwu, who is the chief operating officer of Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), a human rights body based in Lagos, was on the mission with his wife, Ihechi. During the course of their stay in Sweden, the legal practitioner granted an interview to Aftonbladet, a Swedish media on human rights issues, the death sentence on Amina Lawal, a woman condemned to death by stoning by a Sharia Court for adultery in the northern part of Nigeria. Obiagwu was knowledgeable enough to speak on Amina's case being a member of the consortium of Nigerian lawyers who championed the cause for Amina's human rights.
Speaking on the topic: Sharia Law in Nigeria, Obiagwu said he belonged to a team of lawyers led by Mr. A.M. Yawuri and other stakeholders working on Amina Lawal's and other sharia cases.
He said as a team they met regularly under a stakeholders group coordinated by Women Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) and International Human Rights Law Group to discuss the case. He said the case was in Funtua, Katsina State, where Yawuri was based. After the seminar, he spoke with Simone Soderhjelm of Aftonbladet newspaper.
Obiagwu was however embarrassed when a British journal, The Economist, in its December 2002 edition looking at the financial scams involving Nigerians, linked his name in the story the publication headlined Nigerian Scam: Sharia Shenanigans. The same story was also published in the journal's website. The magazine alleged in the report that Obiagwu visited Sweden in October 2002 on a fund-raising drive and received money from the Swedish public, claiming he was counsel to Amina Lawal. The publication further claimed that it spoke to Amina's real lawyers, Mrs. Hauwa Ibrahim and Mrs. Sindi Merder-Gould, who denied knowing him.
He said the facts published by The Economist are false and the editor's failure to verify the report from him or the Swedish NGO demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth. Obiagwu immediately wrote the editor of the magazine demanding for retraction, apology and compensation for defamation and falsehood against his person.
In the letter, Obiagwu said "I did not and have not sought or received any money, favour, consideration or gift at any time or at all from anybody, group or individual in Sweden or anywhere else in relation to Amina Lawal's case. The only support from Sweden to our organisation is from the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights who has supported our organisation's core cost since 1999. All funds received from the foundation for the organisation are fully accounted for at the end of each year".
While in Sweden, he said "the Nigerian Ambassador to Sweden, Mr. G.O. Ajonye, invited us (myself and my wife) to lunch at the chancery on the penultimate day of our return to Nigeria. The ambassador and his wife presented us with gifts for our children and that was the only gift we received from anyone in Sweden during our visit or thereafter".
It was therefore untrue and reckless, he explained, for The Economist to publish concerning my visit to Sweden that "No one will say how much cash Chinonye Obiagwu, a handsome young Nigerian lawyer, raised on his recent fund-raising drive through Sweden". In response, the editor of The Economist, promised to investigate the root of the story and get back to him. Three months after, Obiagwu waited for the result of the investigation that never came.
He has therefore asked his lawyer, Mr. Olawale Fapohunda to sue The Economist, joining Mrs. Ibrahim and Mrs. Meder-Gould as co-defendants. In a statement of claim filed at the High Court of Lagos State, Obiagwu claimed that The Economist, known as the first defendant on December 12, 2002 published on page 58 the following words concerning him.
That: "he was fighting to save Amina Lawal, a young woman condemned to be stoned to death for having extra marital sex. Many believed him. Swedish newspapers feted him, and well-wishers opened their purses. No one will say how much cash Chinonye Obiagwu, a handsome young Nigerian lawyer, raised on his recent fund-raising drive through Sweden. But despite what he claimed, Mr. Obiagwu did not represent Ms Lawal. Ms Lawal's real lawyer, a prominent member of the Nigerian Bar named Hauwa Ibrahim, has never heard of Mr. Obiagwu. The boss of the Nigerian women's group that pays Ms Lawal's legal costs, Sindi Medar Gould, says 'He is not her lawyer; he has not been a lawyer in any of these cases (where Nigerian Islamic courts have imposed the death penalty for adultery)'. Nigerian produces Africa's finest scamsters. For every dodgy human-rights lawyer, there are hundreds of e-mail hoaxers, mass-mailing thousands of strangely plausible pleas for cash."
Fapohunda, in the statement of claim further argued that the facts published were false, untrue and calculated to injure, defame and libel his client. He said the particulars of the falsehood of the publication include:
That the plaintiff, Obiagwu did not travel to Sweden to raise fund but as an expert member of the Colombian Mission on Impunity of the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights, on invitation to speak on a seminar on impunity.
did not and have not solicited or received any money, favour, gift or consideration whatsoever from anybody in Sweden or anywhere in the world with respect to Amina Lawal's case or any case relating to Sharia law in Nigeria.
did not and has not told anyone in Sweden or anywhere in the world that he was the lawyer to Amina Lawal. The lead lawyer to Amina Lawal is Mr. A M Yawuri. The plaintiff is just a member of the Stakeholders Group referred to in paragraph 5 above in the same way as the second and third defendants.
The newspaper with whose reporter the plaintiff spoke with while he was in Sweden Aftonbladet has clearly stated to the first defendant that the plaintiff never told them he was Amina Lawal's lawyer. The plaintiff shall found on the trial on the letter of the editor of the said newspaper to the first defendant.
The second and third defendants are not the lawyers to Amina Lawal, and the third defendant is not the leader of the women's group in Nigeria as portrayed in the said publication.
Some friends and associates of Obiagwu, across Europe and Africa who read the story condemned The Economist. Michael Hammer deputy director, Africa Programme, Amnesty International in his letter to the editor of the journal said the story The Economist carried contains serious allegations of corruption "against a Nigerian lawyer, Obiagwu. To our level of knowledge these allegations are untrue. They are likely to cause irreparable damage to a man of integrity who is devoting his professional and private energies to the respect for human rights and the rule of law".
Hammer noted that while "we welcome The Economist's search for truth and acknowledge its generally high level of journalism, we strongly feel that the above mentioned piece fails to meet your usual standards of truth and quality of reporting and analysis. We perceive it to be The Economist professional and moral duty not only to publish a full retraction of the story and disseminate this retraction in the same manner as the journal carried the story, but to publicly apologise for the content of the article".
He said Obiagwu "is known to us as a highly respectable and reliable partner working on a wide range of human rights issues in Nigeria and outside the country, including impunity, extrajudicial executions and acts of torture, the rights of detainees, fair trial and last but not least the impact on human rights of the Sharia penal legislation introduced in many states in northern Nigeria over the past years".
Secretary-General of the Swedish Foundation for Human Rights, Anita Klum, said the organisation has been working with Obiagwu and that he has participated in the foundation's annual missions to Colombia with the objective of studying impunity in cases of human rights violations. The scribe further said the Nigerian lawyer has contributed greatly to the good result of the missions and the seminars on the same topic held in Sweden in direct connection with the missions.
She said the foundation appreciates and admires the commitment, the competence and professionalism Obiagwu possesses and "is shocked and alarmed by the article in the edition of December 12, 2002 of The Economist, which we fear will not only jeopardise the important work carried out by Obiagwu and LEDAP, but also impact negatively on any other work for human rights in Nigeria.
"We are of the opinion that the allegations put forward against Obiagwu are not well founded, but are insolent and also clearly insinuating in the context of corruption in Nigeria that is the main focus of the article" she further stressed.
Editor-in-Chief of Aftonbladet, Kalle Jungkvist in his letter to The Economist said while Obiagwu was in Sweden they asked their readers to chat with him on the internet about the destiny of Amina, and they did. "He never introduced himself as anything else than one of several of the people that work with helping Amina Lawal, nor did he get any money or payment from us," he said.
Obiagwu told THISDAY last week that linking his visit to Sweden by The Economist with the notorious scam letters allegedly emanating from Nigeria was totally unfair and defamatory. He said "it was also a reckless disregard for the truth", as the journal did not bother to verify the facts from him, when it had or could easily have had his contact from the foundation. But it simply went ahead to defame him.
In one of his correspondents with The Economist, Obiagwu wrote: "Clearly, your widely read publication defamed my person, my reputation and my integrity in relation to my profession, my family and my work as a lawyer and a human rights defender. My dear wife, who was on the trip with me to Sweden and knew the facts I have stated, is still nervously broken down from shock of your false publication against us." He added that "my clients and colleagues who have read your publication are also amazed and this has affected my standing before them, both professionally and personally. My religious and local communities are also affected by the publication and it also reduced their regards for my family and me".
As he spoke with THISDAY last week, he still restated his demands. He demanded that that the journal immediately retract the publication, and circulate the retraction and apology in the same manner that the publication was circulated. He also demanded for a compensation of one billion naira "for the damage that I suffered".
He however expressed appreciation to colleagues and friends during the period of trials. "I want to personally thank colleagues and friends for all the support and encouragement they offered me through this period. As Amnesty International stated in its letter of protest to The Economist, the attack was also on the entire human rights movement in Nigeria and I am happy that the Nigerian human rights community and also the Nigerian media understood it in this light and have been very supportive," Obiagwu stressed.
In particular, he said no Nigerian media published a step down story after "they got in touch with me and other human rights activists in the country. It is obvious to them that it was reckless and in bad faith for The Economist to publish such a story without contacting me or any human rights person in Nigeria.
"After my protest letter, the editor The Economist had written to me that they would investigate the facts published, that was, to investigate after the publication," he regretted.
THISDAY contacted The Economist through Internet for its own side of the story. Up to the time of going to press, the London-based magazine failed to respond.
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