We refer to our earlier communication dated October 11, 2022 on this subject matter and hereby write to update our members, supporters, local and international development partners on the outcome of the court sitting on October 12, 2022.

The Court sat over the matter in Suit Number PHC/1057/CS/2021 and the defender’s lawyer reminded the court that he has a pending motion seeking to strike out the claimants’ response to their counterclaim as well as another new motion filed for the court to also strike out “Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre”, the first claimant for not being a juristic personality on the grounds of the absence of “Incorporated Trustee of…” being written before mentioning the name of the organization to qualify it as a legal entity.

Responding to the motions of the defense counsel, the court said among others that the issues contained in the motions can be presented in the final address to the court for consideration before judgment date.

Arguing on the motions, counsel to the claimants, told the court that he had already filed responses to the two motions before the court and would be important for the motions to be considered and taken without having to wait till the time of the final address before judgement.

At this junction, there was a consensus for the motions to be taken at this stage of the case and the court said both motions would be taken on the next adjourned date and the case was adjourned to November 4, 2022.

For the benefit of those who may not yet be aware of why YEAC-NIGERIA and FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE are in Court with Mr. Mao Nangi; Mr. Nangi had in a social media post and telephone calls to Advocacy Centre’s head office and the Executive Director’s phone in March 2021 threatened the organization, Fyneface and called both Advocacy Centre and Fyneface Dumnamene unprintable names while alleging that the duo stole his idea on “Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative –PACORDI” from his Facebook page and Twitter handle and published in the Guardian Newspaper on December 20, 2020 without giving him credit as the ‘original owner’ of the idea.

YEAC and Fyneface denied the allegations in different media publications and press releases following media, individual and organizational enquiries from within and outside Nigeria as his social media defamatory post against the Frontline human rights defender and organization went viral and global.

Please take it to the bank that YEAC and Fyneface are the original owners of the idea of PACORDI, having conceived it on July 27, 2020 and also used it to apply for funding from an international organization in the United States of America and received the funding in Rivers State with a letter of congratulations in September 2020, a month before he stole the idea from YEAC and Fyneface who are always in the media using the initiative for advocacy as crude oil theft and artisanal refining mitigation mechanisms in the Niger Delta and published it on his own Facebook page on October 20, 2020 and then turned around to accuse YEAC and Fyneface of stealing his ‘idea’ and associated character defamation.

The documents from the international funder of PACORDI for YEAC-Nigeria and Fyneface in September 2020 as proves that FYNEFACE AND ADVOCACY CENTRE conceived PACORDI before him and received funding with it in September 2020, far before he published the idea on his Facebook page on October 20, 2020 has been presented to the court and also submitted to him and he has them in his possession and formed part of the documents that he is asking the court to strike out for him.

Mr. Nangi went further and wrote a letter to YEAC and Fyneface through his lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), giving 14days ultimatum to YEAC-Nigeria and Fyneface that all the funding received so far with PACORDI should be given and paid to him or face legal action by the expiration of the 14-Days ultimatum.

At this juncture, it was important for YEAC and Fyneface to seek redress in a Court of competent jurisdiction over the matter of unprintable name calling and defamation of characters to clear their names of the allegations leveled against them in a suit filed in April 2021.

A Board of Trustee (BoT) member of YEAC-Nigeria and Fyneface Dumnamene were in court on October 12 representing the Claimants in the Suit and following the court proceedings on the matter.

We thank all our members, partners, local and international development partners who are with us and interested in how this libel suit and case comes to its logical conclusion. We urge our members to remain calm and prayerful as the law takes its course for justice to prevail in this matter.

FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE,

Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria.

12/10/2022