The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, has upheld a fine imposed on popular Nigerian On-Air Personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, known as Daddy Freeze, for committing adultery.
On February 18, 2021, a High Court in Port Harcourt ordered Daddy Freeze to pay N5 million for committing adultery with Benedicta Elechi. The fine was to be paid to Paul Odekina, who was married to Elechi at the time of the affair.
The court stated, “The sum of N5,000,000 is awarded against Ifedayo Olarinde (the 2nd Cross Respondent to the Cross Petition) as damages for depriving the Cross Petitioner of the amiable consort of his wife (Petitioner/1st Cross Respondent) and for injury suffered as a result of his adultery with the Petitioner/Cross Respondent.” Additionally, the court dissolved the marriage between Paul and Benedicta due to her adultery with Daddy Freeze.
Dissatisfied with the High Court’s ruling, Daddy Freeze appealed to the appellate court. He argued that Odekina did not attempt to serve him personally before applying for substituted service, violating Order 7 Rule 2 of the Rules of the Trial Court. He also claimed that the service by substituted means, i.e., by courier, was ineffective as per the affidavit of service, violating the principles of natural justice.
In the Certified True Copy of the judgment, dated June 26, 2024, and obtained by our correspondent on Friday, the three-man panel of Justices Abubakar Talba, Danlami Senchi, and Hannatu Balogun dismissed Daddy Freeze’s appeal for lack of merit. The court ruled that if the appellant wanted to overturn the trial court’s judgment due to non-service, he should have filed a counter-affidavit against the affidavit of service and sought to set aside the trial court’s judgment.
The judgment read, “Affidavit evidence can only be countered by a Counter Affidavit. As such, I found the procedure adopted by the Appellant alien to our jurisprudence. Where the Appellant wants the judgment of the trial court to be set aside for non-service, he ought to have approached the trial court by filing a Counter affidavit against the affidavit of service he seeks to set aside and consequently set aside the judgment of the trial court. Thus, as it is in the instant appeal there is nothing filed by the Appellant to counter the affidavit of service of the Process Server filed in.
“Hence, therefore I resolved the sole issue for determination against the Appellant and in favour of the Respondents. The appeal therefore lacks merit and it is hereby dismissed.
“Accordingly, the judgment of the Rivers State High Court in Suit No. PHC/403MC/2012 delivered on the 18th February 2021 by J. Akpughunum, is hereby affirmed. I make no order as to costs.”
According to the CTC of the judgment, Ola Faro and Ikobah Hilton appeared for the appellant while N.A. Naenwi and Wilcox Abereton (SAN) represented the first and second respondents respectively.
Source: Punch