Mr. Kenneth Okonkwo, a Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has dismissed the N5 billion lawsuit threat issued against him by Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) over alleged defamation.
Diaspora Digital Media reported that Obi on Tuesday, threatened to file a N5 billion lawsuit against flippant Okonkwo if he fails to withdraw his allegations against him and tender an apology.
Obi in his pre-action letter to Okonkwo claimed he defamed him by alleging that he defrauded House of Representatives aspirants of N10 million each and went ahead to write a list of candidates for various federal constituencies in the South-east.
‘It’s your shame if you fail to file the lawsuit’
In his first public response on Wednesday morning, Mr Okonkwo laughed off Mr Obi’s lawsuit threat.
In a post on his official X handle, the ADC chieftain mocked Obi, adding that the NDC presidential hopeful should have approached him for financial help if he needed funds for his campaigns rather than allegedly embarking on “extortion.”
“I have not read the letter. Let me sound this note of warning, the lawyers must take responsibility for any information I may have to divulge, which I acquired as a spokesperson, but which by my conscience I have not shared with anyone,” Mr Okonkwo said.
Though, Okonkwo said his principle is that he does not use “any confidential information” he shared with people against them, but Obi might push him to do so.
“Anyone who decides to sue his former spokesperson for defamation is indeed very unwise,” he said of Mr Obi’s threat to sue him.
Mr Okonkwo then challenged Mr Obi to sue him even as he claimed he had not read the letter and would respond after doing so later on Wednesday.
“I will reply to the letter whenever I have the time to read it later in the day. Please send it here if you have it. It will be a shame to Peter Obi and his lawyers if they do not take this case to court,” he said in the X post.
He described Obi as a “hypocrite” and “a scammer” despite the pre-action letter.
Meanwhile, a House of Representatives aspirant in the NDC from Anambra State, Obunike Ohaegbu, has denied telling Okonkwo that Obi scammed him of N10 million or wrote list of candidates in a hotel room.
But in the X post, Mr Okonkwo uploaded a screenshot of his WhatsApp chats with Mr Ohaegbu as evidence of the allegation against Mr Obi.
However, in the WhatsApp chat, an individual he claimed to be Mr Ohaegbu sent him a message that “…I am saying that I was scammed and the party blames PO.”
The chat did not show the individual alleging that Obi or the South-east NDC caucus collected N10 million bribe from him or any other aspirant.
Okonkwo also uploaded on the microblogging platform a bank transaction receipt of N10 million reportedly forwarded to him by Mr Ohaegbu as evidence of the extortion.
The receipt showed that the payment was made to the official NDC bank account, not Mr Obi’s account or NDC South-east caucus’ account as he earlier claimed.
