A human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria has given one Mr. Israel Olayiwola of Sahara Reporter a seven day ultimatum to retract a malicious, defamatory and offensive piece published against his person recently, with unreserved apologies.
In a letter by his lawyers; Mike Ozekhome Chambers dated 22 July, 2020 and signed by Benson A. Igbanoi, Senior Associate Partner in the chamber, titled ‘A seven day ultimatum to withdraw and publicly apologise to Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN on your write-up captioned “Why Ozekhome wants Magu dead by Israel Magu”, which was made available to CUOnline, the chamber claimed the publication was malicious, offensive and with no iota of truth but merely to ridicule the person of its client, Chief Ozekhome in the eye of the general public.
The demand letter revealed that the write-up accused Chief Ozekhome of being a pillar of corruption in the country and therefore lacks moral ground to condemn anyone or interfere in corruption discourse in the country.
The allegations read in part;
“…. lacks moral right to condemn any person accused of corruption because he himself is corruption personified.
“… was a member of the 7-man panel of enquiry instituted by the Abacha regime to probe, restructure and reorganise the Nigerian customs” but that the panel was “disbanded due to allegations that the members engaged in high level of corruption.
“Under the current civilian administration, Chief Ozekhome has been involved in serious electoral malpractices.
“…In 2007 general elections, he was arrested with other armed thugs while snatching ballot boxes in Edo State. The senior lawyer was paraded by the police to the embarrassment of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
“Another reason why Chief Ozekhome, SAN, wants Magu dead is that he was indicted for collecting N75million from Mr. Ayo Fayose as legal fees which turned out to be from the proceeds of crime of money laundering”.
The chamber also brought to the notice of the writer that their client, Chief Ozekhome is a renowned constitutional lawyer, human rights activist and public affairs analyst who is respected all over the society on account of his virtue as a noble personality including in the Catholic church where he is consecrated as a Knight of St. Mulumba, among others.
Consequently, the law chamber while asserting that the allegations are ‘utterly false’, baseless, unfounded, malicious and embarrassing, it demanded the writer to retract them with unreserved apology to their client on the same social media platforms and channels through which the said defamatory publication were published.
It added that in the event of failure to meet the demands by its client within the 7 days grace, the chamber will have no option than to seek redress in the court of law to appease their client whose image and reputation have been battered in the eyes of the public on account of the publication which will include punitive and exemplary damages of N5 billion (Five billion Naira), among other reliefs.