Damagun, Anyanwu threaten lawsuit against Deji Adeyanju for alleged defamation
The Peoples Democratic Party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, has threatened to take Deji Adeyanju, a lawyer and rights activist, to court over allegations of defamation.
Moreover, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, Acting National Secretary of PDP, pledged to pursue civil and criminal litigation against Adeyanju regarding purportedly defamatory statements.
Damagun and Anyanwu, through their counsel, Johnson Usman, SAN, requested that Adeyanju retract the statements and offer an apology in national dailies and other social media platforms to avoid a potential legal dispute.
The chair and secretary of the PDP made this known through two separate letters, with acknowledged copies made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Damagun’s letter, dated and received by Adeyanju on Dec. 4, was followed by Anyanwu’s letter, dated and received on Dec. 5.
One of the letters was titled: “Demand for the Immediate Retraction of the Defamatory Statements Made Against Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagun, the Acting National Chairman of PDP on Social Media Platforms: With A Call for a Corresponding Apology.”
The letter, signed by Israel Ujah, an attorney with the law firm of Usman, alleged that Adeyanju intentionally made certain inflammatory and derogatory remarks against Damagun and Anyanwu.
According to Ujah, Adeyanju described the PDP national chair on a podcast interview as a “Tea man who goes to serve tea in Femi Gbajabiamila’s House”.
The lawyer similarly alleged that Adeyanju described Anyanwu as a “Kilishi Man” who provides “Kilishi” at the residence of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, during the interview.
Ujah noted that Adeyanju asserted in the interview that the current PDP is dominated by Nyesom Wike at the national level.
“By the tenor of your unsubstantiated and defamatory publication, you went on to discourage the members of the public from patronising and holding our client in trust.
”You clothed him with a toga of being a ‘tea server’ and infantile personality who is not worthy of any political validation and patronage.
“We wish to remind you that your right to freedom of speech does not extend to the prism of your catalog of the unwarranted verbal onslaught against the person of our client.
“Your narrative regarding the PDP National Chairman ‘serving tea’ at Femi Gbajabiamila’s residence is a figurative critique of the perceived lack of strong opposition from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the current government.
“By necessary implication, all these statements were intentionally made by you to drop our client’s popularity amongst his teaming supporters and party members, and to also stain his political career ambition.
“Your defamatory statements have exposed our client to serious political embarrassment, psychological trauma, and unquantifiable humiliation.
“We are not unmindful of the fact that your distasteful remarks were sponsored by our client’s political opponent and bearing in mind your selfish interest.
“It is against the above background that we hereby demand an immediate retraction of the above defamatory statements — Podcast interview made against our client on various social media within three days of the receipt of this letter.
“We further demand that your retraction should be accompanied by a statement of apology to be published in the national dailies and other social media.
“Failure on your part to toe the path of honour in this regard; we shall be left with no option but to explore the available remedies in protecting our client’s constitutional rights within the legal parameters. This shall include both civil and criminal litigations.
“Take final notice, that this last resort shall be without further notice to you and shall be done with all the attendant publicity. A word is enough for the wise!” Ujah concluded in one of the letters.
