Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), alongside some other national leaders of the party have demanded the sum of N500m from The Southern Examiner Newspaper, for allegedly defaming them in a story it recently published.
Others allegedly defamed by the Cross River based newspaper are, Senator Umaru Tsauri and Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem, the National Secretary and National Legal Adviser to the party respectively.
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The paper, had on August 8, published a story headlined ‘PDP NWC In N500m Bribery Scandal Over Failed C’ River PDP Congress, ‘ with the picture of the PDP National Chairman beside the story.
The trio in a letter to the newspaper, written by their lawyers, Enoidem & Associates, dated August 10, alleged that the report purported that they were corrupt.
It stated: “The purport of the malicious publication is that our clients are corrupt individuals who make merchandise of their positions in the National Leadership of their party even to the detriment of their party.
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“Our clients know absolutely nothing about the bribery saga reported in your publication and would not do anything to jeopardise the interest of the party they have worked so tirelessly to build in the last few years.
“Your publication, aforesaid, is not just mendacious, it is malicious, unwarranted, vicious, inciting, callous and highly defamatory of the hard-earned and carefully built reputation of our clients. By your actions, our clients have been exposed to serious ridicule, embarrassment, psychological trauma and social stigma.”
The lawyers on behalf of their clients, therefore, demanded from the paper a full retraction of “your highly defamatory publication under reference against our clients in three (3) consecutive editions of your newspaper.
Also, they said “the retraction should be published in three other widely-circulated national newspapers, preferably This day, The Nation and The PUNCH Newspapers; and
“Pay our clients through this office, the sum of 500,000,000(Five Hundred Million naira) for the serious ridicule, embarrassment, psychological trauma, social stigma and social threat to their professional political status occasioned by your defamatory publication.”
According to the lawyers, the Newspaper has seven days from the receipt of the letter, including the day of receipt, to meet the demands.
