A former Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Olufemi Odubiyi, has given a chieftain of main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Olabode George, a seven-day ultimatum to retract alleged defamatory comments made against him.
Odubiyi also said George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, must also tender an unreserved apology and publish same on the cover pages of three prescribed national dailies.
The former commissioner made the demands in a letter through his lawyer, Ayodele Akintunde (SAN), to George, dated March 17 yesterday in Abuja.
In another letter written to the Managing Director of a media group, Akintunde threatened to file a N1 billion suit against the media house and George as damages for the defamatory comments, if they fail to comply with the demand.
The lawyer alleged that George, in an interview on a TV station on March 10, accused Odubiyi of being a mole planted in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by President-elect Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert the will of the Nigerian electorate in the February 25 presidential election.
He said George’s statements connoted 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 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Department.
He also said he was not responsible for the hitches that happened to INEC’s computers during the presidential poll, which resulted in the commission’s inability to transmit results electronically.
The senior lawyer, who refuted the 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 a well-meaning citizen of Nigeria with numerous years of experience, locally and internationally, as an IT expert without any blemish”.
Akintunde said Odubiyi also served meritoriously as a Lagos State commissioner.
According to him, the former commissioner’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, the lawyer 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.”
He also demanded that the media station should do a retraction and tender an unreserved apology “on the cover page of ThisDay Newspaper in no less than three issues within the seven-day ultimatum”.
Akintunde said all the defamatory broadcasts and comments by George be deleted from the TV station’s YouTube channel and any other platform under its control.
The lawyer asked them to give an undertaking in writing that they would desist from broadcasting or further broadcasting the defamatory statements or similar statements concerning his client in future.
He said 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.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC had, on March 14, denied the claim by George that Odubiyi was the commission’s director of ICT Department.
According to INEC, there’s no iota of truth in George’s claim as no member of its ICT staff or personnel across its state offices bears the name “Femi Odubiyi”, as referred to by the PDP chieftain.