Our Client denies the entirety of the falsehood contained in the said publication and insists that there is no modicum of truth in the allegations preferred against him.”
By Saidu Idris
365Daily – The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has demanded the sum of N5 billion from the Special Adviser to the President on Communication and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, to accusing him of organising a protest against the Bola Tinubu government.
This is just as he asked Onanuga to retract the allegation within 72 hours of face legal action.
The presidential media aide had accused the opposition leader of instigating Nigerians to stage a nationwide protest against hunger in a bid to unleash mayhem on innocent citizens.
Onanuga, in a widely reported statement posted on his verified X handle, @aonanuga1956, on July 20, 2024, said, “Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria.” He further declared that Obi should be held responsible for potential anarchy.
Reacting to the statement on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, through his legal counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN, Obi refuted the allegations, demanding a retraction of the ”false and malicious’ allegations and N5 billion in damages for a defamatory publication which has ”significantly harmed Obi’s reputation.”
In a strongly-worded letter dated July 22, 2024 and addressed to Onanuga, Obi’s legal counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN, refuted the allegations, describing them as “false and malicious.”
The letter stated: “Our Client denies the entirety of the falsehood contained in the said publication and insists that there is no modicum of truth in the allegations preferred against him in your published statement.”
Obi’s lawyers argued that the publication was not only defamatory but also intended to damage Obi’s reputation and standing by inferring that ”our client is an anarchist who whilst working in consonance with terrorist groups, has championed the mobilisation of several nationwide protests in a bitter and undemocratic bid to usurp the Federal Government possibly as restitution for failure at the 2023 presidential elections.”
It added, ”Our client denies the entirety of the falsehood contained in the said publication and insists that there is no modicum of truth in the allegations preferred against him in your published statement that has since gone viral on the internet and its various social media platforms.
”The said statements are in every sense malicious and convey with them, the potentiality of an ostracization of our client by well-meaning citizens of Nigeria. It should be stated without any form of equivocation, that our client is an elder statesman, a diplomat and an unwavering democrat,” ”who refrains from associating himself with protests and has constantly persuaded Nigerians to persevere.”
The legal team declared that the statement was a ”calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right-thinking member of the society.”
While noting that the widespread dissemination of the statement has caused significant embarrassment and harm to Obi and his family, the firm demanded Onanuga to retract the statement and tender an unreserved apology to Obi within 72 hours of the receipt of the letter in not less that four national dailies: Vanguard, ThisDay, Punch and the Cable, and on his X handle.
This is in addition to the demand for N5 billion in damages for the embarrassment the publication has caused Obi and his family.
“Take notice that in the event of your failure to meet the demands set out above, our Client shall be constrained to approach a Court of competent jurisdiction and take legal action against you for defamation and libel,” the letter added.