Atiku files N2.5bn libel suit against Buhari’s aide, Lauretta Onochie

A former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has carried out
his threat to sue President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Assistant on
Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, for her alleged libellous tweet via
her Twitter handle on May 7, 2019.

The post allegedly suggested that Atiku was on the watch list of
security operatives in the United Arab Emirates and had travelled
to shop for terrorists in the Middle East.

Atiku, through his lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), filed a
N2.5bn suit against Onochie before the High Court of the Federal
Capital Territory in Abuja on June 26.

“To say that the claimant is shopping for terrorists knowing
same to be untrue and without any foundation is not only dishonest
and reckless, but is calculated and politically designed to
instigate security agents against him not only in the UAE, but
across the world,” he stated in his statement of claim accompanying
the suit.

Denying the allegations contained in the said tweet, Atiku said
the tweet was “politically orchestrated” “solely to cause maximum
damage” to his “high reputation” while challenging “the purported
victory” of Onochie’s boss, President Buhari in the last
presidential election at the Presidential Election Petition
Tribunal.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in
the February 23, 2019 poll had in a May 14, 2019 letter, demanded
an apology, retraction and payment of N500m compensation from
Onochie “to assuage” the damage allegedly caused him by her social
media post.

He also threatened to sue her should she fail to accede to the
demand “within 48 hours”.

Alleging that Onochie was unmoved by his demand letter, Atiku,
in his statement of claim accompanying his suit, stated that rather
than show “remorse by retracting her earlier publication”, she
further, on May 20, made “another derogatory publication and also
published same globally online in the social and other print media”
against his person.

He said sometimes in May this year, he had embarked on a foreign
trip to the UAE as he had done over the years, and while on the
said trip, Onochie on May 7, 2019, wrote, through her twitter
handle:

“Atiku on UAE watchlist- Security sources Security operatives in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are keeping a close tab on a former
Nigerian Vice Pres Atiku Abubakar who has been in the Middle East
nation for several weeks now What is he doing there? Me: Shopping
for Terrorists?”

The claimant said “the defamatory publication” was also
published by several newspapers nationwide and on several social
media news.

He denied the allegations contained in the said publication
which he described as “a figment of the imagination of the
defendant”, but said it portrayed him “as an evil man, mentor of
terrorists, someone who has links with terrorists, and a person who
is interested in destabilising the peace and unity of Nigeria”.

“The publication also portrayed the claimant as a security
threat and terrorist to right thinking members of the public and
the society at large,” the former Vice-President added.

He noted that “the odious publication has clearly rubbished the
claimant’s image and reputation. It has caused him national and
international backlash and embarrassment and has done incalculable
damage to him.

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