Charly Boy slams N1b lawsuit against National Mirror

Charly Boy caused quite a stir at Lagos Island yesterday, Tuesday, June 18, 2012 when he walked into the Lagos High Court and filed a lawsuit of N1b against the National Mirror newspaper.

According to Charly Boy, he is suing the daily newspaper because it published a story claiming he said in an interview that he was gay and a member of the Illumminati. The case was filed in by Charly Boy’s lawyer and representative Ope Banwo.

The ‘Area Father’ who was followed and surrounded by bike riders then held a press conference a few blocks away.

‘If any publication calls Charly Boy gay, I think it’s a fair comment. He’s in the public domain, people will always speculate. But it’s wrong to out rightly report that in an interview he actually said so. That’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed’, Charly Boy’s counsel Ope Banwo explained.

Banwo explained that he had written to the daily newspaper demanding for an apology to be published in four different dailies but received no response from them.

‘It is unfortunate this is happening to me. You all know me, I’m never bothered about any of this news but I’m shocked of this timid, Mongo-parkish way of thinking. I have put tenacity, focus and hardwork in the 35 years of building this brand. I think I deserve more’, Charly Boy told said.

‘You can’t appreciate the brand if you can’t look past the antics of the brand. You have to have depth. You can think and have your own opinion but as responsible journalists, we all should know there are rules of the game. I have nothing against people. I have gay people as friends, everybody is my friend as long as you are positive thinking’, he continued.

Last month, Charly Boy had threatened to sue the paper when he took to micro-blogging site Twitter to express his displeasure.

Banwo explained that the ‘false story’ had already begun tasking a devastating blow as companies working with Charly Boy were already considering dropping him from their brands. ‘The position at the MCSN (Music Copyright Society of Nigeria) is already being threatened’, Banwo disclosed.

Charly Boy is giving another publication Daily Independent who also published the story a week’s ultimatum to publish an apology.

This will be the second homosexuality lawsuit case in recent times after Asa’s N700m court case with News of The People weekly tabloid.