Alleged Defamation: Nwaoboshi Threatens Court Action, Demands Apology, N1b From NDDC Official

Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, has threatened to take legal action against the Head of Corporate Affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Charles Odili over a “press statement” in which he alleged that Nwaoboshi used 11 front companies (owned or traceable to him) to secure a contract of N3.6 billion in September 2016.

In a warning letter dated June 10 signed by his counsel Gene-Augustine Ifechukwukwu Mowah and obtained by BIGPEN in Asaba on Wednesday, Sen. Nwaoboshi, is asking Mr. Odili to tender unreserved public apology to him as well as deposit N1billion to his lawyer within 48 hours as damages caused his reputation.

The letter which has NBA stamp was delivered via courier service to Odili on Wednesday around 12:30pm at the NDDC headquarters in Aba road, Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

In the letter, Nwaoboshi, threatened that he will sue if the official of the commission failed to meet his demands within the stipulated time.

Mr Odili had alleged that: “Our (NDDC) records show that Senator Nwaoboshi used 11 front companies (owned or traceable to him) to secure a contract of N3.6 billion in September 2016, in what is perhaps the biggest single case of looting of the Commission’s resources”.

Nwaoboshi, in the letter by his counsel said that the Odili “Press Statement” was false, wicked, malicious and calculated to lower his estimation in the mind of the right-thinking members of the public.

Mowah, in the letter said that the “Press Statement” authored by Odili which contained wicked and malicious imputations injurious to the character and reputation of his client was circulated in different news media in Nigeria and beyond.

He, therefore, demanded for a retraction of the said “Press Statement“, a publication of the said retraction in all the electronic and print media and social media platforms where the publication was circulated as well as a public apology to be published and circulated in same manners.

Mowah also demanded payment of N1 billion naira as damage for the harm done to his client’s reputation by the said ‘statement’, failure to which he threatened legal action within 48 hours of the receipt of the letter which was couriered to Odili.

BIGPEN reports that the lawmaker had earlier on Tuesday in letter signed by another of his counsel, Daniel Hassan Bwala, asked Lauretta Onochie, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari to apologise over the publication she made on the vexed issue on her facebook page.

In the letter, the senator wants a retraction of the said defamatory publication in all of her social media platform and unreserved apology within the next 48 hours.