Senator slams N10bn lawsuit on EFCC for defamation

dimeji akinloye

June 5, 2016 5:28 PM

In the suit filed before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Omisore said the EFCC move to declare him wanted was irresponsible.

A former deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator

This was stated in a statement issued by the spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Diran Odeyemi.

EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwajaren, was joined as the second defendant in the suit.

“The defendants damaged his good reputation by allegedly concocting falsehood against him and portraying him as somebody who could not be trusted in an advertorial published in The Nation newspaper of May 18, 2016,” the statement said.

Pulse recalls that the EFCC had declared Omisore wanted after he refused to honour its invitation to answers questions over an alleged N700m he received from the office of the National Security Adviser between June - November 2014.

But the Senator said a court had restrained the EFCC from arresting him.

Omisore argued that the advertorial published by the EFCC in the newspaper portrayed him as a dishonest person, who was seeking to evade justice.

The advertorial reads in part: “The public is hereby notified that Iyiola Ajani Omisore whose photograph appears above is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with a case of receiving and misappropriating the sum of over N700 Million between June–November 2014 from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). He has refused to make himself available to the Commission for clarifications in the investigation since invitation via a letter dated 7th April, 2016."

READ: 'Meet me in court with your facts,' Omisore dares EFCC

Omisore said the content of the publication “is completely false, misleading and defamatory.”

Apart from the N10 billion damages Omisore seeks, he also asked the court to grant an order restraining the agency from further publishing any libelous publication against him.

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