Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers State, has filed
defamation charges against Chidi Odinkalu and Ayisha Osori for the
way they portrayed him in their new book on the alleged third term
plots by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
In the suit, filed at the Port Harcourt Division of the Federal
High Court, Mr Odili said the contents of ‘Too Good To Die: Third
Term and the Myth of the Indispensable Man in Africa’ have earned
him huge public ridicule and scorn.
He demanded a published apology and N1 billion from Mr Odinkalu
and Ms Osori, and that further publication of copies of the book
must cease immediately.
Mr Odinkalu told PREMIUM TIMES Not TheNigerialawyerhe would not
be able to comment on the case because he had not been served a
court notice and had not learnt of the proceeding by other
means.
In the defamation charges prepared for Mr Odili by Kanu Agabi, a
senior lawyer, the former governor said he took note of excerpts of
the book in which the authors narrated how late politician, Harry
Marshall, was assassinated soon after they publicly fell out with
each other in 2003.
The book cited a letter which Mr Marshall had written to the
police in Rivers at the time, expressing strong concerns about a
growing spate of intimidation and violent attacks against members
of the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state.
Mr Marshall said the attackers were loyalists of Mr Odili, and
they had the support of the police (to) regularly unleash mayhem
ahead of the 2003 elections.
The book also painted vivid details of how Mr Odili helped
bankroll the third term agenda which Mr Obasanjo pushed to
perpetuate himself in power beyond the 2007 expiration of his
constitutionally-approved two terms of eight years.
“Most of the cash distributed in support of the project were
wrapped in bundles bearing the stamp of First Inland Bank. Unknown
to most people, First Inland Bank’s history lay buried in networks
of loyalty between some of the most influential leaders of the
ruling party, including President Obasanjo himself,” the authors
wrote on page 162.
“The corporate trail however disclosed a deep financial bond
between the president, Senator Ararume and the governments of
Bauchi and Rivers States, then ruled, respectively, by two of
President Obasanjo’s closest governorship acolytes, Adamu Muazu and
Peter Odili, who were at the centre of shadowy, complex, unlawful
and, almost certaining, criminal financial operations behind third
term,” the authors added.
In his lawsuit, Mr Odili said the book cast him in a distasteful
light before reasonable people across the world who have read it,
including eminent scholars in the United States.
The former governor listed scores of awards he has received from
persons and organisations across the world throughout his career,
and said there was no way he could have been involved in the slew
of criminal exploits Mr Odinkalu and Ms Osori linked to him in
their book, which was unveiled in September, 2018.
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