Keshi Has The Right To Sue The Nigeria Football Federation- Nnaji

Sandra Nwokwocha 

A former board member of the Nigeria Premier League, Barrister Ray Nnaji has backed Stephen Keshi on his decision to sue the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, for N1billion for defamation.

The former Super Eagles Coach demanded that his former employers pay him a sum N1billion for allegedly defaming his character in the process of sacking him.

Ray, who founded the now defunct Football Referees Association of Nigeria, FRAN, a parallel referee's body, said if he were Keshi he would have sued the NFF for at least N10 billion.

He noted,  since the NFF did not treat the Keshi issue as a family affair, nobody should blame the former Super Eagles captain for taking the NFF to court.

"If they said anything defamatory, Keshi has the right to go to court. So if anybody is talking about family affair, he is not being fair to Keshi. If he keeps quiet, it is assumed that that was the correct position of things."

He continued, "He has the right to protect his image. It is expensive and you cannot allow somebody to just tarnish your image and get away with it."

He added, "If I were him, I would ask for N10billion. If you ask for N1billion, court will not give you all, unless there was no defence. If there is defence, court will not give you all. "Keshi should have asked for more so that by the time they measure his statue and the weight of what was said against him, it would have come to more than N1billion."

Nnaji said if it is evidently  established that a defamatory statement was made, court does not take lightly issues of defamation and so Keshi will surely get judgement.

Nnaji said he is backing Keshi because as a lawyer, he knows that character is priceless and whoever defames another person's character should face the full weight of the law. He concluded Daily Trust