The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, has upheld the fine imposed on the well-known Nigerian On-Air Personality Ifedayo Olarinde, popularly known as Daddy Freeze, for 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 court directed him to pay the amount to Paul Odekina, who was married to Elechi at the time of the affair.
“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.
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The court also dissolved the marriage between Paul and Benedicta due to her adulterous relationship with Daddy Freeze.
Not satisfied with the High Court’s judgment, Daddy Freeze appealed to the appellate court for redress.
Daddy Freeze’s main grounds of appeal were 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 argued that the service by substituted means, specifically by courier, was ineffective as indicated in the affidavit of service, and that the non-service violated 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 Justice 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 then sought to set aside the trial court’s judgment.
It partly 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 judgment’s Catchetis of Title, Ola Faro and Ikobah Hilton appeared for the appellant, while N.A. Naenwi and Wilcox Abereton (SAN) represented the first and second respondents respectively.
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