Summon Lai, Court Tells Secondus

A high court in River state has granted Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), leave to summon Lai Mohammed, minister of information and the federal government.

Ike Abonyi, spokesman of the PDP chairman, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday.

According to Abonyi, Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra, the presiding judge, granted that the defendants be served by substituted means all the originating processes together with accompanying processes, after which the case was adjourned to Monday, April 23, 2018.

Mohammed had listed Secondus among those who allegedly looted the nation’s treasury.

He had said the PDP chairman collected N200million from the former national security adviser (NSA), an allegation Secondus denied.

Secondus had given the minister a 48-hour ultimatum to withdraw the list and tender an apology.

In a suit filed at a high court in Port Harcourt, Rivers capital, Secondus asked the court to award him N1.5b as damages for “humiliation, castigation, vilification attack on his person and integrity as a result of the publication.”

He also asked the court to compel Mohammed to retract the said publication and apologise in writing.

Secondus said the retraction should be published on all social media platforms, selected newspapers and television stations.

He also sought a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from further publishing defamatory materials against him.a

 

This story was originally reported by The Cable