JOSEPH MANGTUP DIN V. AFRICAN NEWSPAPER OF NIG. LTD

KARIBI- WHYTE, J.S.C.: This is an appeal to this court from the decision of the Court of Appeal dismissing the appellant appeal against the judgment of Bada, J., of the High Court of Lagos State. The facts which gave rise to this litigation are very simple and straight forward. They are of the most scandalous kind and have been stated with clarity in the judgments of the two lower courts. I wish to state them again only for the sake of completeness.

Appellant, who was the plaintiff in the court of trial, was a captain in the Nigerian Army. In 1977, appellant applied to the Federal Electoral Commission to contest election into the Constituent Assembly, and was disqualified by the commission. He thereafter held a news conference where he described himself as a retired captain of the Nigerian Army, and claimed to have served meritoriously and with unblemished record for nine years before he resigned voluntarily. The Nigerian Army confronted with this information, and incensed by their in…