Atiku Files N2.5bn Libel Suit against Buhari’s Aide, Lauretta Onochie
Davidson Iriekpen Chuks Okocha
A former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has carried out his threat to sue President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, for her alleged libelous tweet via her twitter handle on May 7, 2019.
The post allegedly suggested that Atiku was on the watch list of security operatives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and had travelled to shop for terrorists in the Middle East.
Atiku, through his lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), filed a N2.5billion suit against Onochie before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja on June 26.
“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 stated in his statement of claim accompanying the suit.
Denying the allegations contained in the said tweet, Atiku said the tweet was “politically orchestrated” “solely to cause maximum damage” to his “high reputation” while challenging “the purported victory” of Onochie’s boss, President Buhari in the last presidential election at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23, 2019 poll had in a May 14, 2019 letter, demanded an apology, retraction and payment of N500million compensation from Onochie “to assuage” the damage allegedly caused him by her social media post.
He also threatened to sue her should she fail to accede to the demand “within 48 hours”.
Alleging that Onochie was unmoved by his demand letter, Atiku, in his statement of claim accompanying his suit, stated that rather than show “remorse by retracting her earlier publication,” she further, on May 20, made “another derogatory publication and also published same globally online in the social and other print media” against his person.
He said sometimes in May this year, he had embarked on a foreign trip to the UAE as he had done over the years, and while on the said trip, Onochie on May 7, 2019, wrote, through her twitter handle: “Atiku on UAE watchlist- Security sources Security operatives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are keeping a close tab on a former Nigerian Vice Pres Atiku Abubakar who has been in the Middle East nation for several weeks now. What is he doing there? Me: shopping for terrorists?”
The claimant said “the defamatory publication” was also published by several newspapers nationwide and on several social media news.
He denied the allegations contained in the said publication, which he described as “a figment of the imagination of the defendant”, but said it portrayed him “as an evil man, mentor of terrorists, someone who has links with terrorists, and a person who is interested in destabilising the peace and unity of Nigeria”.
“The publication also portrayed the claimant as a security threat and terrorist to right thinking members of the public and the society at large,” the former vice-president added.
He noted that “the odious publication has clearly rubbished the claimant’s image and reputation. It has caused him national and international backlash and embarrassment and has done incalculable damage to him.”
He added, “He has thereby been 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.”
He said following the publication, he received numerous telephone calls, emails, visits, letters and private social media chats by his family members, friends, political and business associates, and international statesmen and women, confirming “the alarm and serious concerns generated by the defendant’s false publication.”
The claimant said he would tender the call logs showing the text messages, and calls received by him in the aftermath of Onochie’s post.
He described “the entire opprobrious and denigrating story” as “most misleading, baseless, false, malicious and totally bereft of any foundation howsoever”.
He noted that the “inference and grave conclusions” contained in the posts were “politically orchestrated” and “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 Buhari, challenging the latter’s purported victory in the last presidential election.”
He said contrary to the said “derogatory, disparaging, mendacious and unrestrained defamatory statement, as published in various print, electronic and online media platforms” he had “never been on the security watch list of the UAE, or any other country, for that matter.
“That claimant was at the time of the said publication in the UAE and was never accosted by any security agencies over the said frivolous and baseless allegations.”