| President Buhari(R) in hand shake with opposition party Atiku Abubakar as they participates at the signing of 2nd National Peace Accord in Abuja on 13th Feb 2019 |
The Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Monday responded to a libel suit instituted against him by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Atiku, in a counter-claim, which he filed in response to the suit, the former Vice-President demanded an apology from Buhari for allegedly filing a “frivolous suit” against him.
In addition, he urged the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja to order Buhari to pay a total sum of N1bn damages to be sent to Internally Displaced Persons’ camps and a balance of another N1bn for library and information technology equipment in all state universities.
The main suit marked FCT/HC/CV/ 804/2019 was filed by Buhari and Buhari Campaign Organisation against Atiku and his aide, Phrank Shaibu, both of whom are joined as defendants in the suit.
Both defendants however sought, “an order of this honourable court mandating the plaintiffs (Buhari and BCO) to apologise to the defendants/counter-claimants for filing this frivolous suit against them,
“An order of this honourable court mandating the plaintiffs their agents, privies ….to abide by the rule of law and the principle of separation of powers entrenched in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not have interference whosoever in the forthcoming February 2019 elections.
“An order of this honourable court mandating that the total sum of N1,000,000 damages to be sent to all the internally displaced persons’ camps highlighted in the counter-claim and the balance of N1,000,000,000 damages for equipment for all state universities in Nigeria.”
The plaintiffs accused the two defendants of making defamatory statements in some national newspapers to the effect that Buhari used his position as President to fraudulently acquire two private companies, Keystones Bank Plc and 9Mobile Communication Limited, for himself, family members and friends.
The plaintiffs told the court that the defendants also falsely claimed that the President acquired the said companies using his influence and the control he had over the head of parastatals or organisations that were connected with the activities of such companies.
But in response, the defendants, through their counsel, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), filed a statement of defence, a counter-claim and a motion seeking an order of court striking out the name of the Buhari Campaign Organisation as the second plaintiff.
In their statement of defence, they said the alleged libellous statements were mere “dispassionate expressions of opinions based on true facts”.
In their counter-claim, the plaintiffs narrated alleged instances of Buhari’s constitutional breaches, failure to secure life and property.