By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Actor-turned politician, Kenneth Okonkwo may have inadvertently booked a date with trouble with his now infamous Channels Television Interview.
Since the interview, not only has Okonkwo been under a barrage of attacks by shocked members of the public, with a couple of them revealing why Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has become his punch bag, but he now has a N10 billion debt hanging on his neck, plus public apologies.
Still grappling with Obi’s anger for which the NDC Presidential Candidate has asked for, among other things, N5bn and a public apology, a former Governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa has also towed Obi’s path. He was one of those Okonkwo mentioned in his infamous interview who allegedly took bribes from South East NDC aspirants to positions.
Embarrassed by what he described as completely false, Udenwa has issued a seven day dateline for the retraction of the damaging remarks against him ,as well as pay the sum of N5 billion or be prepared to face legal actions
Udenwa, who presided over the affairs of Imo state between 1999 and 2007, through his legal team headed by Soronnadi Njoku, SAN described Okonkwo’s television interview as false , malicious and defamatory to his hard earned reputation.
The former Governor is also demanding a written undertaking from Okonkwo not to make any further defamatory publications against his person.
Soronnadi: “As Counsel to His Excellency, Chief Achike Udenwa of Civic Centre Layout, Owerri, Imo State, your comments on ,of ,and concerning him which you made in your Channels Television Live interview in the course of your speech in the program ” SUNRISE DAILY” on the 8th day of June ,2026 has been brought to our attention .
“In the said interview, you stated thus: That is why the NDC has released a statement that its only the South East caucus of the party that was involved in such problems. Onyema Ugochukwu , Achike Udenwa , Peter Obi ,and other leaders of South East caucus were busy extorting the South East aspirants .
” As a legal practitioner which you claim to be, you know or ought to know the meaning of the word ” EXTORT” ,and its derivative : EXTORTING” (see THE CHAMBERS DICTIONARY,10TH EDITION PAGE 532) .
“Our client, Chief Achike Udenwa was the Executive Governor of Imo state for TWO TERMS of FOUR YEARS EACH .
“Thereafter, he served as an HONOURABLE MINISTER of the Federal Government of Nigeria. .
“Throughout his many years of public service, he has never been accused of corruption, or any other crimes of any sort, including embezzlement of public funds or extortion .
“He has the distinction of being one of the very few former Governors and Ministers who DO NOT HAVE ANY CORRUPTION CASE pending against them anywhere in Nigeria or even abroad.
“Most regrettably, your defamatory statements against him, accusing him of illegally securing money from aspirants by compulsion and violence or wrongly from those aspirants by compulsion or violence, a statement you made during a LIVE TELEVISION PROGRAMME broadcast both nationally and Internationally ,and which statement was subsequently published by numerous media houses , including Daily post, Point-blank, News Igbere TV ,and several online.platforms like Phoenix, has greatly injured our client in his credit ,and reputation and portrayed him as a common criminal who abuses his position for personal monetary gains.”
Consequently, the former Imo state Governor, and Chieftain of the NDC issued a 7-day ultimatum for Okonkwo to publish an apology in widely read national dailies ,and other media outfits including Channels Television or face legal actions.
“In the circumstances ,we do hereby ,on his ( Udenwa’s) instructions give you SEVEN (7) DAYS from the date of this letter to WRITE A STRONGLY WORDED LETTER OF APOLOGY TO HIM , published in FIVE (5) NATIONAL DAILIES ,as well as aired on PRIME TIME in CHANNELS TELEVISION , wherein you will clearly ,in unmistakable terms , retract your said publication against him ,and giving an undertaking never to defame him again” the letter added.
How Okonkwo will wriggle out of the anger of these statesmen is a decision only he and the Courts can take.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
