Audu sues Kogi govt for defamation…seeks N1bn damages

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

ABUJA – FORMER governor of Kogi State, Abubakar Audu, has approached an Abuja High Court in Maitama, urging it to invoke its original jurisdiction against the incumbent governor of the state, Ibrahim Idris, for allegedly masterminding publications he said branded him a thief.
The plaintiff in the suit he lodged before the High Court last Friday, equally prayed the court to award him N1billion as general damages, even as he sought an order directing Governor Idris to tender an unreserved apology to him in one full page advertorial to be inserted in five major national dailies.
Specifically, he urged the court to take judicial notice of a recent advertorial entitled “Evil Alert”, which he said had explicitly called him a chronic thief with an insatiable appetite for money laundering, stressing that he had lost his public goodwill sequel to the said publication he said was inserted in several national dailies on June 15, 2011.
Alhaji Audu in the suit he filed through his counsel, Dr. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said he was portrayed as a greedy and corrupt public servant with an insatiable appetite for amassing public wealth, hence his insistence to return to power by all means.
He told the court that his personal picture, as well as photographs of hotels and high-rising buildings in Abuja, South Africa, Dubai and Ukraine, were equally attached to the said publicaing  the  electorate in the state that he looted  Kogi State treasury while he held sway as the governor of the state.

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