Enugu Dim
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s widow and Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain, Mrs.
Bianca Ojukwu, has described as false the claim by former Aviation Minister,
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, that she was his girlfriend when she was a spinster.
Fani-Kayode had in his article, entitled: “Neither a tribalist nor a hater,” published in the social media and some segments of the national dailies, claimed to have met with Bianca when she was Miss Bianca Onoh at the Cambridge College and had “intimate” relationship with her together with two other Igbo ladies.
Reacting to this, Bianca said she had never
met Fani-Kayode before, either at official or private level, not to talk of
having an “intimate” relationship with him.
The ambassador, who spoke through her lawyers,
Wall Street Attorneys, has, therefore, threatened to drag the former aide to
ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo to court if, in the next seven days, he fails to
retract his libelous publication against her.
In the letter from her lawyers to Fani-Kayode,
dated August 27, 2013 and signed by Mike Ugwuanyi, Esq, Mrs. Ojukwu demanded
that the former minister writes an apology and retraction of the said libelous
publication in The Sun and Thisday newspapers, as well as publish it in the
online publication, where it emanated, in the next seven days or face
litigation.
The letter written by Mrs. Ojukwu’s lawyers and
obtained by The Sun read in part: “We have been briefed and our services
retained by Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain to demand
from you an unreserved apology and a retraction of a false and malicious
statement, which you published online and also caused to be published in the
Leadership Newspaper of August 16, 2013.
“In the said article entitled, ‘Neither a
Tribalist nor a Hater,’ you recklessly alleged, as follows: ‘I was not a
tribalist when I had a long standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca
Onoh…’, a statement, which you know is untrue and unfounded, but only
calculated to lower our client’s esteem and damage her national and
international reputation.
“Our client has never met you, does not know you
in person and has never had any official or private relationship with you how
much more ‘a long-standing and intimate relationship.’
“Our client is therefore, outraged by your
bizarre and scandalous allegation and the numerous mails and telephone calls
she has received from friends, relations and admirers who are equally
embarrassed and who seek to confirm the veracity or otherwise of your false and
reckless publication.
“Your apparent lame and half-hearted attempt, as
published in the Leadership Newspaper of 17th August 2013, to clarify your
false and malicious allegation falls far short of a retraction and does not
sufficiently address the damage to our client arising from the widespread
dissemination of your false publication and is therefore unacceptable to our
client.
“In the circumstances, we demand, on the
instruction of our client that you submit to her a clear and unqualified
apology and retraction published in The Sun and Thisday newspapers in addition
to having the retraction published online.
“Take note that should you fail to tender the
apology and publish a retraction of your false and malicious publication, seven
days next after your receipt of this demand notice, our further instructions
are to seek appropriate redress in court. And that shall be without further
recourse to you. Be properly guided.”
No comments:
Post a Comment