Osinbajo threatens legal action against Fani-Kayode for defamation

Osinbajo threatens legal action against Fani-Kayode for defamation

The Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo (SAN), has threatened a legal action against the spokesman for the
President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-kayode, for
what he termed defamation of his person.
Fani-kayode had, in a recent press statement made available to various media
house, alleged that Osinbajo had taking a secret oath with a national leader of the
APC, Bola Tinubu, to relinquish power as the vice president to Tinubu after six
months in office, in the event that the APC won the presidential election.
Fani-kayode had, in the statement titled “APC is selling a dummy to the whole
world; Tinubu is the real candidate,” reportedly described Osinbajo as a stooge in
the hands of Tinubu.
But Osinbajo, in a pre-litigation letter to Fani-kayode on Tuesday, asked him to
within seven days retract the said defamatory statement or be prepared for
litigation.
In the letter written on his behalf by his lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), the senior
advocate also asked Fani-Kayode to tender a public apology to him which should
be aired on four television stations and published in four national dailies in
addition to a payment of N2bn for the damages already done against his person.
Falana said Fani-kayode’s statement was not only false but was specifically
targeted at impugning Osinbajo’s character and lower him in the estimation of
right thinking members of the public.
He described Fani-Kayode’s statement as vicious, wicked and reckless, adding
that the claims were inconsistent with Osinbajo’s faith, role and ethics as a
pastor, a professor of Law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Falana, while saying that Fani-kayode’s statement suggested that Osinbajo was
complicit in a fraud against the Nigerian people, maintained that such statement
negated Osinbajo’s “publicly acclaimed and validated record of competence,
honesty and integrity.”
He therefore asked Fani-Kayode to retract the statement with public apology or
“we shall proceed with our client’s instruction to seek appropriate legal remedies
for your publication and dissemination of defamatory statements.”