Kayode Sesan
Spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari’s Kwara State ministerial nominee, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Monday filed a N500m libel suit against Chief Olisa Metuh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The ministerial nominee in his brief instituted before the Lagos State High court, Ikeja, claimed that the PDP spokesperson had defamed him in a press release, authored and circulated on September 20, 2015.
The controversial release, according to him, alleged that he (Mohammed) siphoned the funds meant for fencing of an airport in one of the APC-controlled states in the South-West part of the country.
Mohammed also claimed that Metuh in the statement alleged that he (Mohammed) embezzled money meant to supply ambulances to an APC-controlled state in the South-West.
The suit, filed on Monday is yet to be assigned to any judge.
However, Mohammed, who noted he previously headed the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation, disclosed that the statement credited to Metuh was “carefully calculated to inflict damage on my reputation and to lessen me in the estimation of the public.”
According to him, Metuh in the statement had said, “…our final word for the APC spokesman on this, is that being ethically challenged, includes embezzling funds meant for fencing an airport in an APC-led South-West state.
“It also includes when one fraudulently refuses to supply ambulances after collecting monies from another APC South-West state.
“It is a comedy of roles when Alhaji Lai Mohammed speaks on corruption, a topic he practices and has well learnt, being a personal aide to one of the most corrupt politicians to ever bestride the political landscape of the country.”
Claiming monetary damage, Mohammed stated that Mehuh had injured his “character in a grave manner and caused him considerable reputational destruction and embarrassment.”
He added that Metuh admitted authorising the statement in a letter by his lawyer, Emeka Etiaba (SAN) dated September 25, 2015 to the claimant’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu, but denied that it was Mohammed that was being referred to.
Mohammed, however, quoted Etiaba to have also referred to an earlier statement where he (Mohammed) also attacked Metuh by stating that “the allegations of corruption hanging on his (Metuh) neck, from within his own party, is a clear indication that he is mortally afraid that the wind will soon blow hard enough to expose the fowl’s rump…”
Mohammed, however, insisted that he made the said statement based on a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission written against Metuh on July 15, 2015 by the PDP, Nkwelle-Ezunaka Ward 1, in the Oyi Local Government chapter of Anambra State.
The APC spokesperson is, therefore, demanding an order mandating Metuh to not only retract his statement but to also tender published apology to him in a widely read newspaper for seven consecutive days.
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