Defamation against Pastor Olukoya: UK court trashes Maureen Badejo’s appeal

London-based Vlogger, Ms Maureen Badejo has again lost her appeal in a London court over the defamation case brought against her by the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (worldwide) Dr. Daniel Olukoya and his wife, Dr. (Mrs) Folashade Olukoya.

It would be recalled that the Queen’s Bench Division of UK High Court of Justice, last year alerted Badejo of imminent jail term if she fails to obey an existing judgement of the court against her for defaming Dr. Olukoya and his wife.

A London High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, had ordered Badejo to pay the sum of One Hundred Thousand pounds sterling (£100,000) to Dr. Daniel Olukoya, founder and General Overseer, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) and his wife, Folashade.

The Court also ordered Badejo to publish a summary of the judgment across nine of her social media channels for a period of 10 consecutive days as a corrective measure and as a means of ensuring that her misguided and misinformed audience get to know about the Court’s decision.

READ ALSO: UK court vindicates Olukoya, orders Maureen Badejo to pay £100,000 as damages

In the latest ruling, the High Court Appeal Centre, Royal Courts of Justice, London, on 13th September, 2022, ordered that: “Permission to appeal is refused, stating that the application is totally without merit.

Maureen had approached the court to overturn two judgements against her.

Before the Honourable Mr Justice Lavender sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL on the 13th day of Sept 2022.

Upon considering the Defendant’s application for permission to appeal and the Defendant’s statement dated 6 May 2022 and the statement of Samuel O’Toole dated 20 April l 2022.

“If and insofar as the defendant was seeking permission to appeal against Master Thornett’s order of 13 April 2021 (“the first order”), her appeal is out of time, no reason for extending time has been identified and no arguable grounds have been identified. The defendant now acknowledges that she cannot use this application to appeal against the first Order.

“Insofar as the Defendant seeks permission to appeal against Master Thornett’s order of 3 February 2022 (“the second order”), her proposed grounds of appeal are both hopeless and pointless.

“The second order correctly recorded that Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries international was no longer a Claimant, having discontinued its action against the Defendant in all respects. Whether it was named as a Claimant in the order or not made no practical difference to the Defendant.

“With one exception, the second order made no change of substance to the first order. Even if the proposed appeal were allowed to proceed and resulted in the second order being set aside, the Defendant would remain subject to the same prohibition.

“The second order merely restated the first order in a different form, in response to a suggestion by Tipples J that a mistake had been made as to the form of the first order. Master Thornett had power to correct that accidental slip pursuant to CPR 40.12.