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| Lai Mohammed |
Spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, Monday filled 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.
Dailypost
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