Opondo Given 3 Weeks to Pay Monitor
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The Monitor (Kampala)
August 13, 2005
Posted to the web August 12, 2005
Lominda Afedraru
Court
COURT has given the Movement spokesman, Mr Ofwono Opondo, three weeks within which to pay over Shs14 million incurred in costs to the Daily Monitor in the shoplifting case.
The Daily Monitor through their lawyers, Nangwala, Rezida & Co. Advocates last week filed an application at Kampala High Court seeking orders for Opondo to pay.
The Court Registrar Ms Flavia Angline yesterday gave Opondo up to September 6 orders to pay after his lawyer Mr Steven Mungoma asked Court to give his client more time to mobilise the money.
Mungoma told Court that his client was unable to pay the money in time because he had been involved in making the national reports concerning the death of the vice president of Sudan, the late Lt. Gen. John Garang.
The Daily Monitor lawyer, Mr James Nangwala, did not object to Mungoma's plea.
Opondo sued the newspaper, following a story published on April 5, 2005 that he had been held and fined by Uchumi Supermarket staff at Garden City for shoplifting a pen and an underwear.
He said the publication maliciously implied that he was "a common thief, a liar, and a fraudster, a criminal" and was not fit for his post.
Opondo added that every subsquent story about the incident had attracted a lot of prominence, boosted Daily Monitor's sales and greatly injured his reputation.
He claimed he was being shunned by some of his colleagues and friends following the publications, and demanded Shs100 million in general damages and costs of the suit.
However, Daily Monitor said it was ready to prove that Opondo had actually shoplifted a pen and underwear from Uchumi Supermarket.
In a written statement of defence filed by the News Paper lawyers on April 14, Daily Monitor said it had documentary evidence and 19 witnesses ready to pin Opondo.
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The lawyers said the newspaper had not defamed Opondo but had brought his reputation to its level.
Opondo later withdrew the case at his own volition.
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