Defamation Of Charater: Ooni Of Ife Drags Popular Blogger To Court

Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi,( Ojaja II), the Ooni of Ife has instituted a legal action against Esther Tokunbo Aboderin popularly known as Esabod.

The suit is sequel to a video clips making the rounds on social media wherein Esabod claimed that the first-class monarch was, in connivance with the Chinese, planning to cart away the Ife kingdom artifacts, works of art and relic of history.

Debunking the claims, Ooni said the accusations are untrue, adding that the wrong accusations are injurious to his reputation.

Ooni claimed that in the posts he was wrongly, and maliciously accused of committing serious offences by the defendant.

In the suit the monarch was represented in court by Thomas Hogan SC, sought various orders against Ms Esther Aboderin under the 2009 Defamation Act.

While introducing his client Mr Hogan told the court that monarch is a trained chartered accountant who has worked in real estate, was selected in 2015 to be the traditional monarch (Ooni of Ife) and spiritual leader of the Yoruba, an ethnic group of 44 million people most in south-western past of Nigeria.

The orders sought by the monarch include injunctions requiring the defendant to take down the allegedly defamatory posts on social media and that she or anyone else with knowledge of the order cease posting any more defamatory material about Ooni.

Esabod was represented by herself before Mr Justice Anthony Barr the defendant, but she consented to injunctions that are to remain in place pending the full hearing of the action being made against her in court.

She also consented to remove the allegedly defamatory posts against the monarch from her Facebook page.

On the material posted on YouTube, the Blogger told the court that other youtubers have posted it on their channels but she would take all necessary steps in order to have them take down.

Counsel to the monarch said that his client first became aware of the defendant’s posts in late May. The contests of her posts were defamatory, untrue, and very damaging to the person the king.

The Ooni Counsel claimed that his client does not know the defendant, but believes he briefly met her on one occasion during an official function in the England.

Thomas Hogan said in order to avoid court case the defendant was contacted my the monarch’s solicitor asking her to remove the defamatory materials but she refused to comply rather joined the lawyer in the materials.

Recalled that Madam Esther Tokunbo Aboderin – Esabod early May on Esabod Show on Instagram claimed that Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife is involved in human trafficking and he plans to sell Ife cultural heritage to a group of Chinese people.

She has also talked about the popular fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde aka K1, Hajia Badirat Adeyemi, Ms Uvbi Mku-Atu and many others.