Tobias Sylvester
A Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square has ordered On-Air Personality (OAP), Toke Makinwa, to pay ex-husband and fitness entrepreneur, Maje Ayida, N1 million for defamation.
Maje Ayida had dragged Toke Makinwa to court after she wrote and published a book titled “On Becoming”, which he said contained defamatory words.
“On Becoming” was a book Toke wrote after her failed marriage to Maje which ended in divorce on Thursday, October 5, 2017, where she detailed her experiences in the relationship and how her now ex-husband got his girlfriend, Anita Solomon pregnant while married to her.
In his lawsuit, Ayida asked Makinwa to withdraw the book from circulation, saying it was misleading and had subjected his personality to public ridicule.
Ayida said his estranged ex-wife made several defamatory statements on several pages of the book, including but not limited to pages 44, 48, 52, 54, 63, 64, 82, 83, 92 and 128.
He, therefore, asked the court to order Makinwa, among other things, to withdraw the book from circulation, recall all copies distributed and hand them over to him for destruction.
Maje also demanded for N100m compensation for damages in the lawsuit. He asked the court to donate damages awarded him to four charities which will be nominated by him.
However, during his ruling on Thursday, Justice Olukayode Ogunjobi said only page 54 line 11-16 and page 83, Line 1 of the 1st defendants’ book qualified as Defamation of character.
Justice Ogunjobi also gave Makinwa and her publisher 30 days to delete the said defamatory words from unsold copies of the book in their custody.
The Court thereafter granted damages of the sum of 500,000 Naira each to be paid by the 1st and 2nd defendants to any charity organization of the claimant’s choice.
The court also granted an injunction preventing the defendants from producing copies of its book with the defamatory words in pages 54 and 83.
KanyiDaily had reported how Maje Ayida publicly apologized to his Toke Makinwa on Instagram over his infidelity and baby drama issues.
