•Ali and Dare
A high court in Abuja has slammed Bash Ali, a former world cruiserweight boxing champion, as it struck out the case of extortion and defamation of character he filed against a former sports minister, Sunday Dare.
The presiding judge, Justice U.P. Kekemeke, at the court’s session yesterday, declared the life of the case terminated, reports The Nation.
Ali had sued Dare in the case numbered FCT/HC/CV/6411/2023, and also joined the federal government and D.A. Muhammad, who was the legal director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
He had accused the former sports minister of extorting N13 million from him to stage a Guinness World Record fight in Nigeria.
The former boxing champion also accused the federal government of stalling the hosting of the fight despite facilitating an advance payment of $12 million.
Ali, therefore, demanded the sum of N500 billion as damages for the alleged extortion and defamation of his character by Dare during the period.
In delivering judgment on the case, Justice Kekemeke of Court 4, High Court of the FCT, Maitama accused Ali of being frivolous and wasting the court’s time.
He dismissed all the allegations against Dare, noting that the suit was statute barred, adding that the Ministry or Sunday Dare did not sign any contract to execute any Guinness book fight.
Ali has for more than 20 years aimed at clinching the record for world’s oldest boxing champion.
