Justice
Ojo of the Ogun State High Court sitting in Ota today struck out the N2billion
suit slammed on the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David
Oyedepo, for slapping a young lady during a church service in 2009.
Robert Igbinedion, a Lagos based
lawyer who filed the suit on behalf of the young lady, had asked the court to
award N2billion as 'general and exemplary damages' against the flamboyant
pastor among other reliefs.
But delivering judgment Thursday
morning, Justice Ojo struck out the case, saying the application lacked
merit on many grounds. He awarded a N20,000 cost against the applicant.
He said the girl, who was allegedly
slapped, remained a ghost victim and that the applicant failed to prove that he
attended the service where the girl was allegedly slapped and .
Mr. Oyedepo was named the richest
pastor in Nigeria last year by Forbes magazine with an estimated worth of over
N20billion.
During the hearing of the case, Dele
Adesina, counsel to Bishop Oyedepo, had complained to the court that they
did not have a photograph and the video where the Bishop slapped the young
lady.
Mr. Adesina had argued that there was
nothing to show that the young lady who was slapped in the video – who had been
dubbed ‘Miss Justice’ in the course of the suit - is a living person.
“There is nothing to show in the
application that ‘Miss Justice’ is a living and existing person entitled to
claim under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution,” Mr. Adesina said.
“We humbly submit that ‘Miss Justice’
is a fictitious person, not capable of being represented in court.
“For the applicant to establish that
he is suing on behalf of another person, that person must be determinable and
identifiable,” he added.
On his part, Mr. Igbinedion asked the
court to grant him all his reliefs since the respondents, in denying that the
young lady was slapped, had failed to help the court arrive at justice.
“The respondents rather chose to lay
their defence on all imaginable legal technicalities without attacking or
denying the several damaging allegations,” said Mr. Igbinedion.