By Adesina Soyooye
Realising the gravity of his false allegation against Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adam’s Oshiomhole is begging for forgiveness to avoid a heavy sanction by the Court.
In his usual foul- mouthedness, and living to the dictum that all is fair in war, Oshiomhole had, in July 2018, during a press conference he addressed, alleged that Governor Ortom had a hand in the chilling murder of two Roman Catholic Priests and other parishioners in Benue.
They were murdered in the Mbalom community.
Oshiomhole alleged that one of the murdered Priests had delivered a Homily that was critical of Ortom, hence the murder.
Ortom went to court, and sued Oshiomhole to the tune of N10bn.
At the beginning, instead of admitting that he lied, Oshiomhole filed six preliminary objections to Ortom’s suit. But the objections were all resolved in favour of Ortom.
However, on Tuesday, Oshiomhole swallowed his vomit. When the case came up, Ortom’s Counsel, Samuel Irabor, said he was ready to call witnesses. But Oshiomhole’s Counsel, Festus Jumbo, said his client wanted an out of court settlement, and pleaded for a one week stand-down to enable them present the terms for the settlement, which would, among other things, include a retraction of the publication.
The Judge, Hon. Justice Augustine Ityonyiman, of the Makurdi High Court, adjourned the case to October 29.
In suing Oshiomhole, Ortom proved he was not a Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the failed Edo APC Governorship candidate in the September 19, 2020 election.
In 2016, when Ize-Iyamu contested on the ticket of the PDP, Oshiomhole, while campaigning for Governor Godwin Obaseki, the then candidate of the APC, had painted the Pastor in the most atrocious colours, calling him a thief, a school dropout, a cultist, and more.
Even though those labels hurt Ize-Iyamu’s campaign in 2020, he is yet to consider going to court to clear his name. Oshiomhole had dismissed his allegations against the Pastor as politics.
In Ortom’s case, he felt that beyond politics, going to court was his best option to clear his name.
