Last year, precisely on the 14th of August 2023, Palmpay Ltd (popularly known as Palmpay), a renowned Neo bank carrying operation in Nigeria made a post on their official X (formerly Twitter) page. The post was captioned; “morning mood when you fund your cowry wallet on Palmpay App”. This post was attached with an image of Mr Darlington Achakpo, Aka Speed Darlington/Akpi, a famous Nigerian musician and entertainer.
Mr Speed Darlington in a show of his disapproval of the content quickly went to his Instagram page to call out Palmpay and demand that the post carrying his image be taken down immediately since his picture was posted and used for advertisement without his consent or approval.
He (Mr Speed Darlington) also stated that he had reached out to Palmpay privately and demanded that he should be compensated for the usage of his image on their platform for advertisement but Palmpay was not forthcoming.
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Mr Speed Darlington in search of a judicial remedy to the breach then briefed his attorney, Mr Stanley Alieke Esq of the breach and infringement.
From the letter we sighted and that was widely circulated online, Barr Stanley Alieke quickly swung into action and wrote to Palmpay Ltd on the 16th of August 2023 demanding that the picture be taken down with immediate effect and that his client be immediately compensated with the sum of 200 million naira for the image copyright infringement and the invasion of his client’s right to privacy. He gave Palmpay Ltd a seven days ultimatum to meet their demands and settle his client or else he would drag them to court.
As threatened, after the effluxion of the seven days Ultimatum, Barr Stanley Alieke dragged Palmpay Ltd before the Federal High Court, Abuja judicial division in a 200m naira suit on the 28th of August 2023 in a suit no; FHC/ABJ/CS/1186/2023, where he prayed the court to order Palmpay Ltd to first and foremost immediately take down the post bearing the image of his client from their page and secondly the court should order Palmpay Ltd to pay his client the sum of 200 million naira as damages and monetary compensation for the copyright infringement and breach of Mr Achakpo’s right to privacy as guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
From the documents recently sighted, it appears that Palmpay Ltd reached out and proposed an out-of-court settlement and the parties have signed the settlement terms after coming to an agreement and compensating Mr Achakpo, for the infringement as proposed by his counsel, Mr Stanley Alieke Esq.
Speaking with Barr. Stanley Alieke to verify the case settlement as rumoured, the lawyer confirmed that the parties; his client Mr Darlington Achakpo and Palmpay Ltd have agreed to terms after Palmpay Ltd met their demands which include financial compensation to his client for using his image for advertisement and therefore the case has been withdrawn.
In a similar story, two years ago, the same lawyer, Mr Alieke Esq as the lawyer to Mr Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Alias Sabinus dragged Friesland Ltd (producers of Peak Milk) and UAC Foods Ltd (makers of Gala sausage roll) before the Federal High Court in a one billion naira suit, for the companies infringing on the image copyright of his client, Mr Chukwuemeka Emmanuel, Aka Sabinus, a renowned Nigerian comedian, content creator and influencer by using his photo and trademarked slogan “something hooge”, for adverts without his client’s consent.
