The embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele has threatened to sue the Senate President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, for what he termed as “false, distorted and disparaging” remarks about his role in navigating the country’s economy.
Emefiele’s lawyer, Matthew Burkaa, said in a letter to Akpabio that he must apologize to his client and pay N25bn as compensation or be ready to face defamation lawsuit in court.
Akpabio had while appearing on Channel Television, attributed the debt and current economic crises to Emefiele in view of criminal charge(s) preferred against him by prosecuting agencies.
Advertisement
Akpabio had said, “So the kind of debt and the kind of economic mess that we are in, a lot of people do not understand, I remember President Obama saying you cannot know Washington until you get to Washington. So by the time we went in to look at the economic state of the country it was terrible, so the Former Governor of Central of Bank of Nigeria we didn’t even know what to charge him, whether to charge him for putting foam on the … or to charge him for illegal possession of Fire Arms or to Charge him for printing notes without income, I don’t know what we are going to charge him with.
“But, what I know is that, yes there is hunger today because of the policies that they took”.
This was not well received by Emefiele, who, through his lawyer said Akpabio’s comments portrayed him as serial offender whose action is responsible for all the hardship experienced by Nigerians today.
Burkaa disagreed with the senate president insisting that the allegations of corruption against Emefiele were already in court and that it would be legally wrong for anyone to declare a defendant guilty when a court of law has not decided so.
“Your Excellency, as the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you certainly know, or have reasons to know that the Federal Government of Nigeria had since the 14th August, 2023 preferred Charges against Our Client to which he had long pleaded not guilty and is presently defending same to exonerate himself and show that he is not guilty of the said allegations.
“It is therefore disturbing that such a statement would be made by the Head of the Legislature of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on a matter that is clearly subjudice.
“Your statement, with the greatest respect, clearly undermines the honour and integrity of the Court and its independence and indeed has the propensity of prejudicing the case against our Client,” Burkaa wrote.
He maintained that having submitted to the jurisdiction of the court, it is only fair and proper that the court should be allowed to determine the issues submitted to it without unnecessary pressure from any other arm of Government.
He stated that Akpabio’s premature remarks is even more damning because he was a key member of the Federal Executive Council and was allegedly aware that no single policy was carried out by him without the alleged approval, directive or authorization of the former president Muhammadu Buhari and/or the Council.
He told the senator to retract his comments or meet him in court.
The letter reads further, “It is pursuant to the above and without delving into the matter presently pending in court that our client has instructed that we write to Your good offices and demand the immediate retraction of your statement which has gone viral and are considered clearly defamatory of our client.
“We therefore have our Client’s further instruction to demand from you an unreserved apology in writing, published and circulated by the same medium with which you have defamed his character and the sum of Twenty-Five Billion Naira (N25,000,000,000) as reasonable compensation for the willful and unjustifiable denigration of his hard earned reputation.
“In the event that you fail, refuse or neglect to comply with this legitimate demand, our Client will be at liberty to seek the appropriate redress available to him under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”