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| Mr. Rotimi Amaechi |
On behalf of his client, Fagbemi is demanding the sums of N1.5bn from Olayinka as compensation for the “destructive” allegation posts by the Ekiti State Governor’s spokesperson on two major social media platforms of his (facebook timeline and twitter handle) on April 14.
On the other hand Mr. Femi Fani Kayode was asked to pay the sum of N500m as compensation for the alleged destructive posts by the former minister on his twitter handle on April 14.
Fagbemi went further to state that Fani-Kayode been a lawyer, ought to know that the ownership of a property can be verified under Land Registry of where the property is located and should have therefore carried out his research in that regard, before going on his twitter handle to spread false accusation on his client.
Fagbemi maintained that Amaechi neither owned the flat where the money was found nor owned the cash as well.
Here are excerpt from the letter, “Our client neither owns the cash nor the house where the cash was found and your story and claim are unfounded. As a matter of fact, our client does not own any house in Lagos State not to talk of keeping cash in one and your story is preposterous.
“Your twitter rant of 14/04/2014 at 04.16 was viewed by your 316. 000 followers, re-tweeted 1,209 times and made a favourite by 434 followers as of the time of writing this letter today at 7.15pm and the list is increasing by the minute and same has satisfied all the conditions needed for a successful defamation case against you.
“We have our client’s mandate to state to you unequivocally that the said twitter publication constitutes libel, and is defamatory of him as same (the claim) is aimed at impugning our client’s character and credit in the eyes of right thinking Nigerians and foreigners.”
It is against this background that Fani-Kayode was issued with a seven-day ultimatum to tender apology to the minister and that such apology be carried by five national dailies.
Fagbemi added that Fani-Kayode should pay his client N500m damages as “compensation for the malicious and defamatory claim.”
He threatened to sue the former aviation minister if the demands were not met within seven days.
The lawyer in two separate letters, each relating separately to facebook and twitter posts by Olayinka, demanded the sums of N750m as compensation for each of the posts.
The letter relating to the twitter post read in part, “Your twitter post of 14/04/2014 as at 07pm today was viewed by not less than 12,000 followers, retweeted 38 times and made a favourite by nine followers as of the time of writing this letter.
“Please note that the list is increasing by the minute and same has satisfied all the conditions needed for a successful defamation case against you. May we state at this juncture that our client contracted a valid statutory marriage within the Marriage Act, which prescribes a ‘one man-one wife’ union.
“Your baseless assertion that our client bought a flat for one Mo Abudu, whom you also claim to be his girlfriend, raises the assertion that our client is adulterous and is unfaithful to his marital vows.
“We have our client’s mandate to state to you unequivocally that the said twitter publication constitutes libel, and is defamatory of him as same (the claim) is aimed at impugning our client‘s character and credit in the eyes of right thinking Nigerians and foreigners.
“In the light of the foregoing, and in the spirit of a second chance, we have our client’s instructions to give you an ultimatum of seven days from the receipt of this letter to issue an apology in five national dailies and on your twitter handle.
“Your apology, which should be heartfelt, must be a total withdrawal of your claim and its imputations must also contain an expression of deep regret for this unwarranted attack and must also contain a complete retraction of the false statement of yours.
“We also demand from you a sum of N750,000,000.00 (Seven hundred and Fifty Million Naira) as compensation for the malicious and defamatory claim.
“Please note that the demand will increase with time if you fail to retract the statement and publication immediately.
Fagbemi quoted Olayinka as stating in the posts, “The Osborne Towers, a luxury residential complex in lkoyi, Lagos where EFCC said it found $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 on Wednesday is owned by the Minister of Transportation. Rotimi Amaechi.
“The house was built by Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the former Chairman of PDP through a loan from GTBank.
“He could not repay the loan so GTB took over the house and allocated the Pent House to Mu’azu and two flats
“Rotimi Amaechi bought TWO of the flats (7A and 7B). He then gave 7A to Mo Abudu, the TV presenter, who is suspected to be his girlfriend.
But the flat 7B, where the money was found, belong (sic) to Rotimi Amaechi.
“This is believed to be cash kept for 2019 elections.
“Let’s see how the cover up game goes.”
“Failure to do any of these would be met with stiff legal actions which your defamatory act deserves. A stitch in time saves nine!”
He reproduced the same content, making similar demands of apology and N750m compensation in the second letter in which he stated that Olayinka’s “Facebook post of April 13, 2017 was viewed by your over 5,000 friends with 47 friends liking it, 84 people commenting on it and 43 people sharing it as at the time of writing this letter.”
At the time of compiling this report, Fani-Kayode in a statement issued by his media aide, Jude Ndukwe said, “We have been inundated with calls concerning a threat by Rotimi Amaechi to sue Chief Fani-Kayode for defamation over the $48m issue.
“We are not losing any sleep over this matter. We have not received any court processes or letters from Amaechi but when we do so, our lawyers will respond vigorously and appropriately.”
Amaechi to sue Fani-Kayode and Gov. Fayose's Aide
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April 18, 2017
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Reviewed by Unknown
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April 18, 2017
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