Commissioner sues APC elders for calling her ‘governor’s mummy’

The Ondo State Commissioner for Finance, Omowunmi Isaac, and Kunle Odide have dragged 35 elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state before the state High Court sitting in Akure over an alleged libellous publication in which they called her “governor’s mummy”.

The commissioner sued the elders over a publication in a national daily in February this year, demanding N5 billion in damages.

Isaac and Odide also asked the court to order the defendants to publish an apology to them in three national daily newspapers, among other reliefs.

One of the defendants in the suit is a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state during the administration of the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, Kola Olawoye (SAN).

Speaking after the matter came up for hearing before the court on Tuesday, Olawoye, who is the first defendant, said he appeared for himself and seven others, while other lawyers represented the remaining defendants.

He said the 35 defendants were APC leaders and elders from Owo Local Government Area of the state, adding that they came prepared to challenge the jurisdiction of the court and competence of the processes filed by the claimants through a preliminary objection. 

According to him, the claimants had filed an application seeking to correct some defects in their processes, which the defendants did not oppose.

Olawoye added that the court, presided over by Justice Yemi Fasanmi, consequently awarded N100,000 in costs to each of the 35 defendants, amounting to N3.5 million, before adjourning the matter to October 8, 2026.

He said: “The crux of their action is that I wrote a letter to the national chairman of our great party, APC. 

“The letter was couriered directly to the national chairman, which is our legal right under the law.

“The letter was not published to a third party; it was written to draw the attention of the party’s national leadership to funny developments within the APC in our local government.”

The legal luminary, however, noted that efforts had been made to resolve the dispute out of court, adding that the defendants had reached out to relevant authorities in the state, but the moves had yet to yield the desired result.

Olawoye added: “As an elder of the party, you must know that I will accommodate settlement. 

“We made moves. 

“We talked to the authorities concerned in the state. 

“But they feel otherwise.

“Now that we have a big election coming up that concerns the President of this country, we must not give room for anything to disunite us, to set us apart. 

“Our goal now, our target, is that Tinubu must win.”

Reacting, counsel for the claimants, Olaoluwa Imoru, said the suit was founded on an alleged libellous publication authored, signed, and caused to be published by the 35 defendants on February 2, 2026.

Imoru said the claimants were seeking declarations that the publication was “extremely defamatory”, “disparaging”, and “needless” in addition to aggravated, special, and general damages over the alleged injury to their reputation.

He said: “They are saying, invariably, that this person (commissioner) exercised a kind of authority or power over His Excellency, the governor. 

“And that is not the case here.

“She is an appointee of the governor. 

“She is subservient to the governor, she is answerable to the governor, and not the other way around.”

Imoru said one of the statements in the publication described the commissioner as “mummy” of Lucky Aiyedatiwa, governor of Ondo State.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖