Federal Capital Territory Chief Magistrate’s Court, Abuja, has dismissed a defamation suit filed against Nollywood actress, Elizabeth Anjorin (aka Lizzy Anjorin), for being incompetent and lacking merit.
In dismissing the suit, CR/25/2025, Chief Magistrate Sunday Adukwu awarded N50,000 costs against the complainant, Audullahi Mosadoluwa, wife of a Lagos-based property developer, Ibile. The magistrate delivered the ruling, upholding a preliminary objection filed by Anjorin, which challenged the competence of the suit and the court’s jurisdiction to entertain it.
Mosadoluwa, had instituted the suit against Anjorin and Shakira Ayobami through her counsel, Yakubu Eleto.
The complainant accused Anjorin and Ayobami of criminal defamation, acts and conduct likely to breach public peace, tranquillity, order and decorum, and the publication of false, malicious and defamatory statements.
However, the defendants, through their counsel, A.U.E. Ogboi, filed a preliminary objection challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the complaint.
The objection was predicated on a single issue: whether, given the circumstances of the case, the court had the power to entertain the direct criminal complaint.
The complainant raised two issues, including whether the court lacked jurisdiction and whether the criminal summons was incompetent on the grounds that the complaint giving rise to it was defective.
She argued, among others, that the affidavit of urgency was not one of facts; that the application for leave to issue or serve outside jurisdiction was made under civil procedure rules; that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 makes no provision for counsel to serve summons; and that the summons is an abuse of court process.
After citing legal authorities, the magistrate ruled in favour of Anjorin and dismissed the criminal complaint.
He held that the direct criminal complaint was “absolutely incompetent on many fronts’’, noting that Section 80(4) of ACJA, 2015 requires a complainant to file a single complaint at a time, whereas the complainant filed multiple offences in one complaint; criminal defamation, acts likely to breach public peace, and publication of false and defamatory statements.
The court further held that both the complainant and the defendants are residents of Lagos and not the FCT, thereby robbing the court of the requisite jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter.
Source; The Nation News