Retract defamatory comments or face lawsuit, Odubiyi tells Bode George

Bode-George

Chief Bode George

By Taiye Agbaje

Mr Olufemi Odubiyi, the former Commissioner for Science and Technology, Lagos State, has given Chief Olabode George a seven-day ultimatum to retract alleged defamatory comments made against him.

Odubiyi also mandated George, who is the former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), must tender an unreserved apology and published the same on the cover pages of three prescribed national dailies.

This is contained in a letter addressed through his lawyer, Ayodele Akintunde, SAN, dated March 17 in Abuja.

In another letter written to the Managing Director of Arise media group, Akintunde threatened to slam a N1 billion suit against the broadcast group and George as damages for the defamatory comments if they fail to comply with the demand.

The lawyer alleged that the PDP chieftain, in an interview on TV on March 10, accused Odubiyi of being a mole planted in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert the will of the Nigerian electorate in the Feb. 25 presidential election.

According to the lawyer, his statements meant that his client was criminally minded and had been involved in criminal activities such as election rigging.

“In their natural and ordinary meaning, your said words meant and were understood to mean that our client is an enemy of democracy; an election rigger,” he said.

Akintunde said contrary to George’s remarks, Odubiyi was never INEC’s head of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Department.

He added he was not responsible for the hitches with INEC’s computers during the presidential poll which resulted in the commission’s inability to transmit results electronically.

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The senior lawyer, who corrected the erroneous assumption that Odubiyi was commissioner for Science and Technology during Tinubu’s administration, said his client was commissioner between October 2015 and January 2018.

He described Odubiyi as “a right standing and reputable member of the society and well-meaning citizens of Nigeria with numerous years of experience locally and internationally as an IT expert without any blemish.”

“Our client’s reputation has been seriously injured and has suffered considerable distress, anxiety and embarrassment including threats to his person and that of his family members.

In a letter to George, he said: “Our client’s instructions are therefore to demand from you the following: Within seven days of the receipt of this letter, you personally retract live on Arise News and Arise News YouTube channel all the defamatory words/statements made against our client.

“And tender an unreserved apology to our client for the damage to his reputation.”

Furthermore, he demanded from the media station a retraction and unreserved apology “on the cover page of ThisDay Newspaper in no less than three issues within the seven-day ultimatum.”

All the defamatory broadcasts and comments made by George be deleted from the TV station’s YouTube channel and any other platform under its control.

Meanwhile, he asked them to give an undertaking in writing to desist from broadcasting or further broadcasting the defamatory statements or similar statements concerning his client in future.

Failure to comply and provide them with proof of compliance within seven days of the receipt of the letter would lead to the commencement of legal action against them for monetary damages in the sum of N1 billion.

NAN

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