The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed a N2.5 billion suit on the Presidential Special Assistant on new Media, Lauretta Onochie, therefore making good his threat to sue her for libel over her statement accusing him of planning terrorism and being wanted in Dubai.
Onochie had on May 7 twitted that Atiku is on the watch list of security operatives in the United Arab Emirate, and that he had travelled to shop for terrorists in the Middle East.
His Counsel, Mike Ozekome, leading other lawyers, said that the public image of his client is battered by the post resulted in his being regarded as a terrorist. According to him, her post was calculated to cause maximum damage to his reputation.
“(The) entire opprobrious and denigrating story was most misleading, baseless, false, malicious and totally bereft of any foundation howsoever. (It was) invented by the defendant and others of her ilk, solely to cause maximum damage to the high reputation of the claimant, who is currently before the Election Petition Tribunal against her employer and boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, challenging the latter’s purported victory in the last presidential election.”
Noting that he was “subjected to the shame and infamy of being viewed by members of the public as not only corrupt, but as a terrorist and sponsor of terrorism,” Ozhekome insisted that “to say that the claimant is shopping for terrorists knowing same to be untrue and without any foundation is not only dishonest and reckless, but is calculated and politically designed to instigate security agents against him not only in the UAE, but across the world”.
He wants the Court to declare that the May 7, and May 20, 2019, publications by Onochie concerning and touching on his reputation, “are utterly false, baseless, unfounded and defamatory of the Claimant, and injurious to his reputation.”
Atiku had earlier demanded for retraction and apology from Onochie and N500 million or else he will go to court.
