The High Court of Lagos State sitting at Ikeja has thrown out a lawsuit brought before it by Landwey, a real estate investment company owned by Olawale Ayilara, against the EQ expose.quest (EQToday) and its founder ‘Fisayo Soyombo over the platform’s publications.
Delivering a ruling in Suit No: ID/ADR/2487/2023 – Landwey Investment Limited & Anor. v. Foundation of Investigative Journalism & Fisayo Soyombo, Honourable Justice Oshoala struck out the case for a lack of diligent prosecution.
THE BACKGROUND
On April 2, 2022, EQToday published a report titled “21 Months After Taking N42m, Wale Ayilara’s Landwey Fails to Give UAE-Based Nigerian His Property“. The report recounted how Landwey failed to deliver a house to a Nigerian, despite the Nigerian paying in full 21 months earlier.
Landwey’s reaction to the story was to persuade EQToday’s founder to take down the story to save face, but they soon learned that this was impossible. And it ended there until February 2023, when Landwey took down EQToday’s website through the backdoor.
Not long after, EQToday released an investigation, ‘Landwey, Money Heist’: A Real Estate Company With Access To Power Is Getting Away With Daylight Ponzi, exposing the high-handed and extortionist practices of the real estate company and detailing how the company took funds from the public for lands that were never delivered, before going on to market new land schemes.
Landwey’s lawyers subsequently wrote EQToday, threatening a N1 billion lawsuit if the publications were not removed and an apology tendered. With EQToday refusing to back down, Landwey instituted a lawsuit demanding N100 million compensation for damages.
READ MORE: ‘Landwey, Money Heist’: A Real Estate Company With Access To Power Is Getting Away With Daylight Ponzi
THE RULING
In addressing the Court, EQToday’s lawyers — Abimbola Ojenike, Damilola Omotosho, and Tosin Atanranshe of Slingstone LP — expressed concerns that Landwey filed a libel suit against the defendants but consistently failed to appear before the court to pursue its claim.
The defendants filed a defence and opposed Landwey’s application for injunction filed to restrain EQToday and Soyombo from further publication.
“By so doing, Landwey put the defendants through needless litigation and this came at a cost to the defendants on account of engaging counsel, filing court processes and attending all court sessions while Landwey itself absconded from court,” EQToday’s lawyers argued.
Landwey came to court only once, represented by one M.O Otun who stated that Landwey had “debriefed and rebriefed” their law firm.
READ MORE: BREAKING: FCCPC To Investigate Landwey After EQToday’s ‘Money Heist’ Story
The court had previously awarded a cost of N100,000 against Landwey on March 5, 2024 for failing to take necessary procedural steps in the case, as required by law. Specifically, Landwey failed to file court processes for commencement of Case Management Conference.
The defendants also noted that the Statement of Defence against Landwey’s claim was filed as far back as 2023 within the time prescribed by law, and there was no response whatsoever from Landwey.
On account of this lack of diligent prosecution, the court was requested to dismiss the action as stated under Order 27(1) sub rule (3) of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019.
READ ALSO: To Hide EQToday’s ‘Landwey, Money Heist Story’, Paid Social Media Influencers Trend #Landwey
Ruling on the application, the court held that:
“I have considered in the interest of justice Order 27(1)(3) cited by Counsel and I agree. The kind of lack of diligence in prosecution displayed by the Claimant should never be encouraged by any court of law whatsoever.”
The court held this is an appropriate case to indemnify the defendant through the award of cost. The court granted cost in the sum of N500,000.
The earlier N100,000 cost awarded against Landwey remains unpaid till date.
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