A Nigerian blogger based in the US, Funke Ashekun, got a rude shock when a Baltimore County Circuit Court ordered her to pay a hefty $50,000 fine for slandering the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Dr Daniel Olukoya.
The court, presided over by Judge Theresa Adams, ruled that Ashekun’s online posts were defamatory and malicious, and that they damaged the reputation of the MFM and its pastors.
The case, with the number C-03-CV-22-004424, was filed by MFM USA and its three pastors, Grace Ugeh, Kunle Ladipo and Adekunle Adekola, who claimed that Ashekun had been spreading lies and falsehoods about the MFM and its General Overseer on social media.
According to a statement by Olukoya’s media aide, Collins Edomaruse, Ashekun had recently moved to the US and had been using her YouTube channel to launch vicious attacks on the MFM and its leader, whom she accused of being a “Pharaoh” who sexually abused women and girls in the church.
Ashekun, however, denied the allegations and said she was shocked by the lawsuit. In a video she posted on November 28, 2023, she said she had never mentioned the name of any church or pastor in her posts, and that she was only speaking out against the rampant sexual abuse in churches.
She also said she did not know the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and that she was surprised that a woman, Grace Ugeh, would join the suit against her for speaking up for women’s rights.
She said she had never been to the MFM church in the US, and that she could not even recognise the pastors who sued her if she met them on the street.
She said she was the sole respondent in the lawsuit, and that the plaintiffs had filed two different suits against her.
She wondered how people she did not know could sue her for expressing her opinion, and called it an irony.
