An Abuja-based lawyer, Nkem Okoro, has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to law teacher and social critic, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, to retract and apologise to him for an alleged defamatory publication.
In the letter dated October 3, 2024, Okoro also demanded the sum of N1 billion in damages and an apology to be published in three national dailies within 24 hours or face legal action.
In the letter, the lawyer expressed shock that Odinkalu could accuse him of a breach of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) without recourse to the pending appeal before the Supreme Court and the fact that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) dismissed the petitions on the matter over a wrongful direction by the committee in a case of double representation in a brief he received from a visually impaired client.
The request arose after Odinkalu made a publication on October 3, 2024, against Okoro, who had on August 13 cautioned him over his criticism of Justice Sylvanus Oriji of the FCT High Court after his ruling restricting the movement of organizers of the #EndBadGovernance Protest to the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja.
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Odinkalu had earlier suggested that the judge’s restriction order against the protest was because he hails from the same Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State as the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
However, Odinkalu, in a latest post on his X handle, which was published by an online magazine, alleged that Okoro was indicted by the LPDC with a warning from the committee for an alleged professional ‘breach’.
He wrote, “Last August, one Okoro was everywhere threatening #FireAndBrimstone about my views on what was a manifest abuse of judicial power by @fcthighcourt. It turns out Nkem Okoro has previous record infraction in such matters with the #LPDC @Nigerialawyers; @Lawandsocietym please note.”
Presenting the facts of the petition at the LPDC, Okoro stated, “It is, therefore, shocking sir, that you could descend this low, in your vindictive attempt consequent upon my earlier stern warning to you, to stop your derogatory and disrespectful publications against the nation’s judiciary, by attempting to malign my person, by this your false publications.
“By your false and malicious publication, you misrepresented to the general reading public that I was indicted by the Legal Practitioner’s Disciplinary Committee, over a matter, that is pending before the Supreme Court in Appeal No: SC/CV/857/ 2021, without also bringing to the attention of the reading public that the decision of the Legal Practitioner’s Disciplinary Committee, wherein, I was asked to apologize to certain persons, is subject of an appeal before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“By your false and malicious publication, you misrepresented to the general reading public that I was indicted by the Legal Practitioner’s Disciplinary Committee, over a matter, which the Nigeria Bar Association, had investigated and dismissed for lacking merit, after consideration of a petition written by Ogbonna Paul Arochukwu, as it pertains to the facts and circumstances to which you gave a distorted narrative, just to malign my person, in vengeance of my earlier stern warning, asking you to desist from insulting the nation’s judiciary.”
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