The Court of Appeal, sitting in Enugu, has struck out the appeal filed by four psychiatrist doctors, including the Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatrist Hospital, Enugu, against a senior nurse of the health institution, Mr. Afam Ndu.
The appeal, marked CA/E/47/2022, was filed by Ubochi Vincent, Ngozi Unaogu Justin Acho and Ugwuonye Onyekachi, challenging the decisions of the Enugu State High Court over defamation of character of Ndu.
The trial court presided over by Justice E. M. Egumgbe, had in 2021, awarded N2.5million cost against the four consultant psychiatric doctors, who it was gathered, had accused Ndu of rape, murder and possession of fake certificates, a development that made Ndu approach the court in 2017 to seek for redress.
Dissatisfied by the trial court’s ruling, the four doctors approached the Appeal Court, insisting that the letter they wrote to the Ministry of Health, discrediting Ndu, was privileged information and not for public consumption.
They also based their appeal on whether the trial court was right when it held inter alia … “That the entire contents of the petition against the nurse, which was addressed to the Minister of State for Health as signed by the doctors, are false, malicious, vexations and actionable libel which has caused the nurse odium, contempt, ridicule and caricature before right thinking persons?”
But, while delivering its ruling on Thursday, the three-man panel, presided over by Hon. Justice Zainab Bage Abubakar, ruled that the appeal lacked merit and consequently struck it out.
Justice Abubakar said the two issues formulated by the appellants did not arise from the said grounds of appeal.
“It appears to me that the two issues formulated by the appellants above did not arise from the said grounds of appeal.
“I therefore find it necessary to determine or resolve this important point because it touches on the competence of this appeal and invariably the jurisdiction if this court to entertain same,” the judge said.
While the judge did not award costs, she ordered the parties to bear them.
Justice Joseph Eyo Ekanem and Justice Ridwan Abdullahi also agreed with the lead judgement.
Counsel Mr. Ndu, I.O Adani, applauded the court’s decision, noting that his client would now be in good stead to enforce the judgment of the High Court, which also ordered the doctors to make a public apology and publish it in two national newspapers.
He said: “At the end, the Court of Appeal has once again proved that the court is the last hope of the common man.
“All I can say is that it is not only victory to Dr. Afam Ndu, but our society, that gone are the days when somebody will wake up one morning and disseminate false statements with the intent to undermine one another.
“Those statements were indeed defamatory. They were asked to retract it, but they refused to do so. Of course, what was left for us was to seek justice.”