The Lagos State High Court at the Tafawa Balewa Square has ordered celebrity broadcaster Toke Makinwa to pay one Maje Ayida, said to be her ex-husband, N1m damages for defamation.
The court, in a judgment by Justice Olukayode Ogunjobi, added that Makinwa must within 30 days delete defamatory words against Ayida from unsold copies of a book titled, “On Becoming”.
In 2017, fitness coach and columnist, who is the principal character in the book “On Becoming” Maje Ayida, hired British lawyers to sue Toke Makinwa over her tell-all book ‘On Becoming’.
He
declared the book is an “exaggerated fabrication.”
He has also asked her to stop the sales of the book and all forms of
promotional activities.
According to Maje, it is untrue that he gave Toke Makinwa a Sexually Transmitted
Disease in the past or at any stage in their relationship. It is also “highly
misleading” for Toke’s book to allege that Maje “did not financially contribute
adequately” to their marriage.
Maje’s lawyers also sent the On-Air-Personality, a “letter of demand” which says Toke Makinwa’s book contains “defamatory words”.
Toke Makinwa’s tell-all book, On Becoming, had detailed her account of her
relationship/marriage to Ayida, a fitness expert.
In the book, the television personality accused Ayida of giving her sexually
transmitted diseases, being a serial cheat and committing adultery.
The law firms Maje Ayida hired, which are in both the United Kingdom and Nigeria to handle the case are:
- Carter-Ruck, a leading defamation law firm in the UK to top figures like Simon Cowell, Elton John and Chelsea FC
- While Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) of Pineiro LP is heading the legal front in Nigeria.
Maje Ayida, through his lawyers, has, among other things,
informed Makinwa to retrieve the already-sold books and stop all forms of
distribution.
The letter mandated Makinwa to “withdraw from circulation all copies of the
book and take immediate steps to call in all copies of the book already
distributed and deliver up same at the place to be agreed upon by our client
for destruction.”