Today, the noise of Charlyboy's 61st birthday anniversary raid the air as
bloggers, news websites, twitter, radio stations and TV stations went agog
with comments from his fans and well wishers, congratulating him for being
consistent with his enigmatic character as well as his selfless services
towards the rehabilitation of the downtrodden. Our correspondent had learnt
that well over 10 thousand birthday messages were received by the Areafada
who sometimes twitted back at his followers in acknowledgment of their
messages. The same goes with Facebook and on the Charlyboy Websites.
However, Charlyboy had yet shocked his fans by dragging National Mirror to
court for Libel on the day many had thought he would be celebrating with
family and friends. Many of his fans had expressed surprise over the
decision of the Areafada to have sued National Mirror on his birthday, but
like it is generally believed, "with the Areafada, anything is possible".
It would be recalled that National Mirror and daily independent had
published a story on Saturday, the 28th May, 2012 claiming that the former
had admitted being gay and Head of the Nigerian Illuminati. Infuriated by
the story, the Areafada had asked his lawyer and his press Secretary to
write to National Mirror and Daily Independent for a total retraction of
the story.
Even though the story published by Daily Independent was only available on
their website, they swung into action almost immediately by retracting the
story and apologizing to the Areafada. Information reaching us is still
sketchy about the decision of Charlyboy on daily independent; however, our
source had learnt that the Areafada may be considering a compensation just
to reciprocate their earlier action.
However, Charlyboy was said to have been provoked beyond his initial state
when instead of publishing a retraction on the said subject, National
Mirror came up with a publication justifying why the story was published as
well as the need for such publication. Charlyboy had again reacted through
his Lawyer, Bar. Ope Banwo, drawing national mirror's attention to the fact
that their response showed the highest level of irresponsibility in
journalism and was unacceptable.
It was reported that even though, the National Mirror Chief Executive, Mr
Jimoh Ibrahim had called Charlyboy on the phone to apologize and as well
promised to do a retraction, no further action had been taken since then.
This is said to be why Charlyboy resorted to the final court action against
National Mirror.
Charlyboy in a suit filed in the Lagos High Court on Tuesday had demanded
for 1 billion naira compensation and a total retraction of the story which
his Lawyer Ope Banwo had considered unprofessional, biased and libelous.
All effort to reach the Editor of the National Mirror on phone hit the
rocks as his numbers were unavailable as at the time of this report.
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