Alison-Madueke Sued By Media Consultant For N1bn

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke has been sued by an Abuja-based media consultant and former newspaper editor, Mr. Simon Imobo-Tswam, for libel, mischief and the unauthorized use of his name, phone number and platform for image-laundering.

Diezani Alison-Madueke

The lawsuit was filed at a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Imobo-Tswam is seeking N1 billion from the minister as “general and compensatory damages.”

According to Sahara Reporters, the plaintiff said, Ms. Alison-Madueke and her media agents illegally used his name, his mobile telephone number and the official letterhead of his group, Network of Progressive Activists (NPA), to launch a media attack against former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The plaintiff added that the minister and her hirelings exploited his name and group in defending the minister’s alleged questionable spending of N10 billion to charter jets.

Apart from the Petroleum Minister, other defendants are Michael Mukwuzi, Timothy Ademola, ThisDay newspapers, Tokunbo Adedoja, Vanguard newspapers, Chioma Gabriel, and Anozie Egole.

The plaintiff, who is represented by Chris Alashi has urged Justice M.M. Kolo to award N1 billion and he also wants the court to order the defendants to pay an interest of 18% on the judgment award.

Imobo-Tswam added that he wants the defendants to apologize to him, with the apology published in the Vanguard and ThisDay newspapers.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants “maliciously, malevolently, mischievously and wickedly ascribed/attributed to the plaintiff” opinions that “embarrassed, injured and devastatingly damaged the Plaintiff, and cast him in bad light before well-meaning members of the public and most particularly patriotic Nigerians.”

The lawsuit accuses the minister and her agents of using the plaintiff’s name, without his authorization, as the author of an advertorial that attacked Obasanjo following a political feud between the former president and President Jonathan. According to the plaintiff, he had rejected an offer to speak against Obasanjo on a program at AIT as well as to represent himself as the author of an anti-Obasanjo piece.

Imobo-Tswam alleged that, despite his refusal to attack Obasanjo, Mukwuzi and Ademola affixed his name as the author of a scurrilous piece that was published in several Nigerian newspapers.

The plaintiff also asserts that he was approached again to use his name and platform to defend Ms. Alison-Madueke after the minister was accused of recklessly squandering more than N10 billion of public funds on chartered jets.

The lawsuit stated that, despite the plaintiff’s refusal to lend his name or that of his platform to the defense of the minister, the defendants went ahead to write an advertorial titled “The Unveiling of Operation Destroy Diezani,”giving the impression that he had authored it. It was subsequently published in several Nigerian newspapers on March 26, 2014. The publication used the plaintiff’s platform’s letterhead, e-mail address and personal phone number.

The lawsuit asserts that Imobo-Tswam has suffered great harm since the action by the minister.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the lawsuit.

Meanwhile the controversial Minister of Petroleum Resources, has rejectedplans to leave the country to avoid supposed corruption accusations under the incoming All Progressives Congress administration.

The minister also disregarded speculations that she has met with former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, for a “soft landing” from the in-coming government.