Looters list: Secondus sues Lai Mohammed for defamation, demands N1.5bn damages

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus has dragged the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to court for alleged defamation of character, following the inclusion of his name in the list of treasury looters.

Prince Secondus was alleged to have collected N200m from the former National Security Adviser NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki

But Secondus had written to the minister through his lawyer, Mr Emeka Etiaba (SAN), seeking the immediate retraction of his name on the list, payment of N1.5billion damages and public apology within 48 hours.

Should Lai Mohammad fail to meet the demands after 48 hours, the lawyer said , ” We shall within 72 hours from today, proceed to a court of competent jurisdiction to ventilate our clients right under the law and shall further seek the protection of the court against you”

Having failed to meet the demand, the PDP national chairman on Frday, made good his threat and filed a suit at the Port Harcourt High Court in Rivers State, claiming among other things that the court should award to him the sum of N1.5billion being “damages for humiliation, castigation, vilification attack on his person and integrity as a result of the publication”.

According to a statement from the PDP National Chairman’s media office signed by his spokesperson, Ike Abonyi, Secondus in the suit no/PHC/1013/2018 is also claiming that Lai Mohammad’s publication is defammatory and is asking the court to direct him to retract the said publication and apologize in writing
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He also requested Mohammed to publish the retraction and apology in all the social media including but not limited to some newspapers;, the Nation, Thisday, The Sun, Guardian and Punch as well as on NTA and Channels Televisions channels among others where the defamatory story was published.

Secondus is also asking the court for “a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from further publishing defamatory materials against him”
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The PDP national chairman also named the Attorney General of the Federation and the Vintage Press Ltd, publishers of the Nation Newspapers as co-defendants to the suit.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit .