Orphanage may sue magazine to court for libel

Orphanage may sue magazine to court for libel
By EMMANUEL UDOM
A Lagos orphanage, The Little Saints, located in palmgrove Estate may be heading for the court as some prominent lawyers are said to be currently fine-tuning modalities preparatory to seeking redress against a Lagos weekly soft-sell magazine for publishing a libelous report on the Orphanage and its founder.

National Daily reliably gathered from inside sources that the determination by the lawyers to drag News of the People to court followed its publication captioned: “Little Saints Orphanage in Child Trafficking Scandal”, which appeared on November 24, 2008.

In the said publication, one Miss Ruth Okeke, had gone to the magazine's corporate office with what the lawyers considered a wild, baseless and unfounded tales that Rev (Mrs) Dele George, founder of the orphanage was running a human trafficking outfit when her desperation to have her five-year-old son adopted by the orphanage home failed.

The report alleged that, the founder of the orphanage who incidentally is the first daughter of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, a two time governor of then Bendel State was using the home as a cover up for the illegal business of child-trafficking.

The lawyers felt that the magazine should be sued as its writers failed to do a thorough investigation on the allegations raised by Ms. Okeke before publishing the report. Our reporter further gathered that when the magazine was about hitting the newsstand with the story, it contacted Rev George who requested the writer to visit either the corporate office of the orphanage home or any of its branches to carry out thorough investigations on the allegations.

Instead of the reporter from the magazine to visit the Orphanage, he decided to send a set of allegations online to Mrs. George and intimidated her to answer the questions without delay. The founder was said to have told the reporter on phone that the allegations were baseless and unfounded.

However, the lawyers are rattled that because the magazine did not do a thorough job; the publication has brought untold shame to the 120 children in the orphanage and an embarrassment to its entire management.
Independent findings by National Daily however revealed that Miss Okeke may have been on a vengeance mission considering the fact that her request was politely turned down since it is against the policy of the orphanage to adopt a child based on desperation and lack from the mother.

But, neighbours of Miss Okeke at No 2, Peridox Street, Ago Road in Isolo are advising the management of the orphanage to ignore the woman who is alleged to be mentally unstable. Some of her neighbors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, since the woman at the center of the storm was not at home stated that Okeke was obviously a frustrated woman having been abandoned by both parents and the man she claimed impregnated her.
Speaking on the issue, George told National Daily on Tuesday that “though I have forgiven the magazine as well as the writer and editor”, her lawyers may most likely write officially to the publishers.