A Court in the United Kingdom has ruled against blogger Maureen Badejo, ordering her to pay £100,000 in damages to Dr Daniel Olukoya, founder of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), and his wife, after she lost a defamation case.
The UK High Court of Appeal, Queen’s Bench Division, presided over by the Honourable Mr Justice Lavender, affirmed the orders of Master Thormett made on 13 April 2021 and 3 February 22 in the case with reference number QB-2020-003625, brought by the appellant. The court found Badejo’s online statements about the couple to be false and defamatory. She was ordered to pay £65,000 to Dr. Olukoya and £35,000 to his wife.
Court Order
In giving the order, “The court ruled that the defendant’s online statements were false and defamatory,” and ordered Badejo to publicly retract her claims and share a summary of the court’s judgment on her social media accounts.
Giving the grounds for the order, Mr Lavender said the permission to appeal was refused as the application lacked merit and in pursuance of CPR52.4(3), the defendant may not request this decision to be reconsidered at an oral hearing.”
Insofar as the Defendant seeks permission to appeal against Master Thormett’s order of 3 February 2022(the second order), her proposed grounds of appeal are both hopeless and pointless.”
Badejo’s appeal was unsuccessful, and the court maintained its decision, emphasising that false accusations have consequences and individuals are protected against defamatory statements.
Ms Badejo, a UK-based blogger and the proprietor of Gio TV, was accused of using her social media channels to blackmail Mr Olukoya and his church on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
She had claimed that Mr Olukoya and his church duped the United States government by selling his books in the country without paying due tax. She also alleged that an MFM pastor in the UK paid £150,000 into the personal account of Mr Olukoya ”and then went to Nigeria to meet the cleric so he could help him cover up his fraud”.