Atiku Vows To Drag Lauretta Onochie To Court After She Failed To Apologize And Pay Him N500m

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has vowed to sue an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social media, Lauretta Onochie, for over N2bn as she has failed to apologize and pay him the sum of N500 million after allegedly defaming his character.

Atiku had on Sunday written a letter to Onochie accusing her of character defamation by linking him to terrorism and saying that he 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 N500m or meet him in court where he would sue her for N2bn.

However, Onochie said on her Facebook page the next day that Atiku was a depressed man who was trying to distract her as the legal battle to unseat President Buhari, her boss, gets intense.

During an interview with PUNCH on Tuesday evening, Atiku’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) revealed they’re heading to court because the 48 hours given to Onochie to settle the matter out of court had lapsed.

He further stated that instead of paying the N500m and writing an apology as demanded by Atiku, the President’s aide went ahead to insult the former Vice-President again on social media. Mike Ozekhome 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 N2bn because she has aggravated the matter.”