Nigerian soul/jazz musician Bukola Elemide, a.k.a Asa, failed to appear at a Lagos High Court on Thursday, further stalling her N700 million defamation law suit against Lagos-based magazine, News of the People.

The “Baby Gone” singer and her manager Janet Nwose are suing the publishers of the tabloid mag for publishing a salacious article that made assumptions about the singer’s sexuality and the nature of her relationship with manager Nwose.

Asa and Nwose are demanding N700million in damages over the defamatory article, titled “Lesbianism Tale Trails Asa and Managerpublished in the December 14-22 edition of the magazine in 2010.

No headway was made in the case on Thursday, as Asa failed to appear in court, but the singer’s counsel urged the court to adjourn the law suit until a further date.

In a letter to the court’s registrar, Asa explained that musical engagements outside the country prevented her from being in court.

Trial judge, Justice Adenike Coker, adjourned the case until 26 April.

Asa and Nwose are asking the court to restrain the defendant from further publication of defamatory allegations about the singer, adding that the previous article had been written with the sole intent of maligning their “unblemished” career.

The accused the defendants of painting them as promiscuous women of low morals. However, the publication, in its defence statement denied the use of defamatory words in their articles and insisted that they had a right, under Section 22 and 39 of the constitution, to keep the public informed on matters of interest.