South East breaking News
Atiku Heads To Court As Buhari’s Aide, Lauretta Onochie, Fails To Pay N500m, Apologise
Former Vice -President Atiku Abubakar is set to sue an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social media , Lauretta Onochie , for over N 2bn as she has failed to apologise and pay him the sum of N 500 m after allegedly defaming his character .
Atiku ’ s lawyer , Chief Mike Ozekhome ( SAN ) , revealed this to our correspondent during an interview on Tuesday evening .
Ozekhome said the 48 hours given to Onochie to settle the matter out of court had lapsed.
He further stated that instead of paying the N 500 m and writing an apology as demanded by Atiku , the President ’s aide went ahead to insult the former Vice – President again on social media.
The senior advocate said , “ Of course , we are going to court because she has even aggravated the issue . She posted another comment online abusing Atiku saying that he was talking nonsense . She seems not to understand the gravity of what she has done.
“ She has aggravated the matter. We shall meet in court and we practise a constitutional democracy and we are a society governed by laws . We are preparing to go to court. In my chambers , we don’ t threaten people for the fun of it .
“ When we say we will go to court if a demand is not meant , we stand by our words . We may even increase the lawsuit above N 2 bn because she has aggravated the matter .”
Atiku , who was the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election , had on Sunday written a letter to Onochie accusing her of character defamation for saying on Twitter that Atiku was on a security watch list in the United Arab Emirates .
The former Vice – President subsequently asked her to publish a written apology in six national dailies and pay the sum of N 500 m or meet him in court where he would sue her for N 2 bn .
However, Onochie said on her Facebook page the next day that Atiku was a depressed man who was trying to distract her.
Attempts to reach her for comment on Tuesday proved abortive as her phone rang out .