Elombah Brothers Plead Not Guilty In Police IG’s Defamation Suit
Daniel and Timothy Elombah, the two journalist brothers sued by police Inspector-General, Ibrahim Idris, have pleaded not guilty to four counts of defamation charges against the police chief.
The brothers were arrested on January 1 on allegations that they published an article critical of Mr. Idris, who immediately deployed officers and public resources to track them down.
The police said the brothers published the article on their website, Elombah.com.
The brothers denied the defamation charges, saying they never published the article for which they are being charged.
The court heard after the matter came up at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday that the brothers knew that the article was defamatory but went ahead to run it, anyway.
Festus Keyamo, a senior lawyer, who appeared for the Elombahs, deplored the charges brought against his clients.
“It is a shame that people are still being put on trial at this age over something they said about those in power,” he said.
Today’s hearing is the first in the trial.
