Former Deputy Governor of Osun State and two-term Senator, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has demanded from the Chairman, The Osun Progressives (TOP), Mr Adelowo Adebiyi, the payment of the sum of two billion Naira as damages, an apology to be published in two major newspapers and several online news outlets as well as retraction of what he described as malicious publication in some section of the media against him.
According to a letter signed by the representative of his solicitors, Lords & Temple, Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday: “Our instruction is that your press release which was published in several news media outlets including Daily Post of 21st March 2022, as Chairman and Secretary of The Osun Progressives (TOP), you made a libellous and defamatory statement of and concerning our client, Senator Iyiola Omisore in the following terms.
“The group in a statement signed by TOP Chairman, Adelowo Adebiyi, on Monday, sounded a note of warning to the APC leader who according to them ‘have embraced a fair-weather friend, who is carrying the albatross of complicity in the death of our leader, Chief Bola Ige.’
‘Officials initially offered to help but when the number of able-bodied citizens at the centre increased, they left us unattended to’
“If Governor Gboyega Oyetola will not mind being an associate of an alleged murderer and sponsor of many killings in the state, we at the TOP will not join him and we are telling the whole world that we are not going to join those dancing on uncle Bola Ige’s grave with his alleged killers.”
The letter further read that: “Our client has informed that your publication is not only false and without any factual basis but malicious in all material respect. It is by the reckoning of our client, a deliberate attempt sponsored and/or designed to malign his image and his political stature as a leader of note in Osun State, the South-West geo-political zone and Nigeria as a whole.
“Our client has consequently directed us to request for a retraction of the said press release and apology to be published in two major newspapers and several online news outlets not later than forty-eight hours of the delivery of this letter and also payment of the sum of N2,000,000,000 (Two billion Naira) as damages for malicious publication against our client.”