In what appears to be a frenetic effort to clear his name of corruption allegations leveled against him, Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation,Mr Mohammed Adoke has slammed a N10.2 billion libel suit against,Mr Dino Melaye,the executive secretary of Anti-Corruption Network as well as the Trustees of the anticorruption body.
Adoke is inter-alia seeking “an order of perpetual injunction restraining Melaye and other defendants, their servants, agents or privies from further inferring in any manner whatsoever to the plaintiff’s reputation.”
The suit filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital has some notable Senior Advocates of Nigeria,SAN namely Bolaji Ayorinde,Babajide Koku ,Ahmed Raji and Donald Denigwe among a team of eleveN legal luminaries raised by Adoke to tackle Melaye.The AGF is also seeking a N200 million as his litigation cost.
Adoke said in his statement of claims that the “defendants deliberately, carelessly and intentionally authorized the publication of the words referred to herein knowing fully well that the words as published and as concerning the plaintiff meant in their natural and ordinary meaning in the estimation of all right thinking persons to be the following:
“That the plaintiff is a dishonourable person who associates himself with criminals and economic saboteurs.
“That the plaintiff, even though a top government official is sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to tackle the menace of corruption.
“The plaintiff is dishonest and dishonourable by providing assistance to oil thieves and other criminals.
“That the plaintiff seeks for and receives bribes or other forms of pecuniary advantage in other to assist the selfish aims of the plaintiff and persons indicted of crime.
“That the plaintiff is not a fit and proper person to occupy any position of authority or responsibility including that of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
“It is further averred that the defamatory publication by the defendants were specifically directed to the plaintiff and no other person.
“It is further averred that by reason of the false and defamatory publications, the plaintiff’s hard-earned reputation, character and achievements have been severely tarnished amongst all right thinking members of the society, and in particular to the plaintiff’s family, professional colleagues, political associates, the international community and the society at large.”
Melaye accused Adoke of corruptly abusing his office with regards to several corruption cases such as the one involving ex Oceanic Bank MD Cecilia Ibru, the money laundering suit against Erastus Akingbola ,ex MD of Intercontinental Bank ,the circumstances behind the return of the Vaswani Brothers and the $180 million Halliburton scam , among others.
