Posted by By TONY OSAUZO Benin on
True to their threats, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the Action Congress (AC), have written to the Edo State government, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communications and Public Relations, Mr. Tony Ikpasaja, and the Editor of the Nigerian Observer, threatening legal action over a publication in which the government asked Oshiomhole and the AC to produce the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Barr. Calus Enoma, within 48 hours of face dire consequences.
True to their threats, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the Action Congress (AC), have written to the Edo State government, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communications and Public Relations, Mr. Tony Ikpasaja, and the Editor of the Nigerian Observer, threatening legal action over a publication in which the government asked Oshiomhole and the AC to produce the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Barr. Calus Enoma, within 48 hours of face dire consequences.
In the letter, signed by their counsel, Mr. Rickey Tarfa (SAN), the Edo State government, Mr. Ikpasaja and the editor of the Nigerian Observer were given three days to retract their statement and tender appropriate apology or face legal action.
In the offensive publication, which was carried by the Nigerian Observer of Monday, March 31 at Page 5, entitled:, Government Special Announcement, the state government had said: "Government suspects that the commissioner must have been kidnapped by the Action Congress and their co-horts, who are desperate to frustrate the efforts of His Execellency, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor and the PDP to appeal against the judgment and make the state ungovernable under the present administration.
"We unequivocally demand that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his agents produce alive and in good health, Barrister Calus Enoma within 48 hours or face the dire consequences of their actions to stifle efforts to appeal against Justice Umeadi's contentious ruling."
According to Tarfa, the above reproduced portion is not only defamatory, unfounded, illogical, but it is also inflammatory and irresponsible without any shred of proof in support
He said one would have expected that the appropriate authorities to which such missing person reports should have been made with the Nigeria Police and other security agencies.
He said his clients consider it illogical to suggest that a person and a party who have been adjudged legitimate winners of the governorship election would have any interest in making the state "ungovernable".
"The subsequent discovery of the corpse of the missing honourable commissioner clearly puts a lie to the wild and unsubstantiated allegations levelled against our clients in relation thereto. If anything, any investigation or suggestion of foul play would be better focused on the party that has now become well-known as a 'nest of killers', Mr. Tarfa wrote.
He said at this critical period in the history of Edo State and the nation, it behoved on all men of goodwill to guard their utterances and to refrain from acts or statements calculated to incite hatred and violence with the intention of doing harm to the commonwealth.
Specifically, Mr. Tarfa lashed at the editior of The Obeserver for failing to investigate the story and hearing from the other side before rushing to publish the damaging allegations under reference.
"Your failure to follow the time tested ethics of your own profession raised the presumption that your publication was actuated by malice at the prompting of your temporary political overlords," the letter to the Nigerian Observer editor said.