The Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Mike Igini, has threatened to slam a N1billion libel suit on the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Dr Blessing Agbomhere.
Agbomhere also from Edo like Igini is the South-South zonal organising secretary of the APC.
He demanded the resignation or outright sack of Igini over the role he played in the controversy rocking the APC governorship and senatorial primary elections in Akwa Ibom.
The APC chieftain had, in a statement to journalists last Tuesday in Abuja, accused Igini of “biased, partial and reasonably shows the act of a man who is indebted, compromised, and running higgledy-piggledy to appeal to his paymaster.”
In a pre-litigation notice, Igini and his lawyers led by Clement Onwuenwunor SAN, claimed that the APC chieftain had in a television interview he granted on June 29, accused him of working for the PDP in the state, as well as acting as a ceremonial consultant to Governor Udom Emmanuel.
The pre-action notice addressed to Dr Agbomhere, reads: “We act as legal practitioners for Honourable Mike Igini (hereinafter referred to as our client) and on whose instruction we write this protest and demand letter to you.
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“In a Television interview aired by Arise Television and anchored by Dr Rueben Abati on 29th of June, 2022 and subsequently relayed in several other news media platforms, you maliciously published to the whole World about our Client as follows: ‘Mike Igini has abused the privilege of his office, he is partial/biased against the interest of APC in Akwa Ibom state.
“He is working for PDP in Akwa Ibom state, and he is a ceremonial consultant to the Governor of Akwa Ibom state in electoral matters, he has compromised the values of INEC, he is a hatchet man hired by the PDP to work for them in INEC, shamelessly defending the rights of political parties and that he lives in the Lodge of the Government of Akwa Ibom State….. that he has videos of him driving in and coming out ………..’.
“The above malicious accusations published to the whole World have, ever since, been given unprecedented publicity and they constitute the most wicked attack on the towering image of our client, who over the years, has earned a deserved reputation in Nigeria and internationally as a forthright electoral umpire.
“Your said bogus allegations were hellish conjectures from the spiral imaginations of a mischief-maker who neither have the fear of God nor regard for a man of probity in your misguided foray for ephemeral political power.
“As a characteristic of unrepentant blackmailers, you threw caution to the wind, and in your frenzied efforts to disparage our Client without checking your facts, you did not know (and will be shocked to know) that our Client does not know where the Government Lodge of Akwa Ibom State is located and that our Client lives in the official quarters of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Uyo, and this is very well known to you.
“We have the instruction of our Client to challenge you or anyone else to post your taunted pictures and videos to the whole World.
“Our brief further confirmed, and this will even interest you to know that our Client has never visited the home of a human being, son or daughter or any individual in his home anywhere in Akwa Ibom State since he resumed as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State in 2017 and your allegations of being a hatchet man for PDP in Akwa Ibom State, a ceremonial consultant to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State in electoral matters, are misguided and reckless in extreme.
“We need you to recognize that the oath of office sworn to by our Client has remained his guiding rule and his insistence on compliance by political parties and candidates with the Law and Rules of INEC is for the overall benefits of our democratic practice where fraud, manipulations, sabotage and manoeuvring of electoral guidelines are completely discouraged.
“Our Client’s principled stance against the above vices is in summary, the reason for your unjustifiable vituperations against him on National Television. We shall hold you to your words at the appropriate forum and we hope you will not call friends and foes to beg for you when the “chips are down.”
“Consequently, we have been instructed by our Client to demand from you a retraction of the defamatory statements and an apology to be broadcast on some television stations and to also be published in some national dailies within 48 hours from the receipt of this letter.
“We also demand the modest sum of N1billion from you as damages for the said defamatory statements.
However, Igini said the allegation was untrue and vow that said failure to comply with the said demands will lead to legal action.
