…Demands Retraction & Apology
By David Mzer
The immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom has demanded that the Special Adviser to Benue State Governor on Research and Documentation, Mkor Aondona Donatus should retract the allegations of financial irregularities he recently leveled against him or be prepared to prove the claims before a court of competent jurisdiction.
A Demand Notice issued by Chief Ortom’s counsel, Barrister S. E Irabor, addressed to Mkor and routed through the office of the Secretary to the Benue State Government, said the action of the Special Adviser to the Governor amounted to cyberstalking, criminal defamation, malicious falsehood and libelous online publication against the former Governor.
“On the 8th November, 2024, you did cause to be published on your Facebook timeline (Mkor Aondona Donatus) an insidious publication against our client with the headline – “May God Almighty Never Allow The Wickedness Of An Ortom To Overshadow His Glory!”. What followed this banal headline was a godless cacophony of mischievous, malicious and malevolent web of lies that bothered on the utterly ridiculous”, the notice stated.
It went further to establish that Mkor’s publication on social media deeply harmed Chief Ortom’s hard-earned reputation in the eyes of the public.
“By your deliberate design, you ensured that these defamatory and libelous falsehoods received prominent attention on social media platforms where gullible persons took turns to pour invectives on our client. By your latter facebook post of 9th November, 2024, you sustained your incontinence against our client and even scoffed at the suggestion of legal action against you.
“It is the brief of our client that the said publication is in all material particular false, unsubstantiated, concocted, malicious, mischievous, wicked, offensive, in bad taste and made in utmost bad faith to bring him to public ridicule, hatred and opprobrium”, it stressed.
The former Governor’s counsel said contrary to Aondona Mkor’s allegations, the previous administration under Chief Ortom did not expend a single penny of Benue money for both the proposed Cargo Airport at Daudu and the Igumale Cement factory or paid for any MOU.
It stated that Chief Ortom also does not own any water factory by the bank of the River Benue and has never been cited in any court of law, either in the state or beyond its boundaries for tax evasion.
It went further to clarify that Chief Ortom did not at any point deploy imported industrial machines meant for Benue State for his private use as claimed by Mkor. The letter expressed misgivings about the salacious allegations by Mkor without any scintilla of evidence and remarked that if this is how he carries out “RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION” of records for the Benue State Government, then it leaves a lot to be desired.
In consequence, the demand notice mandates Mkor to write a letter of retraction/apology addressed to the immediate past Governor in respect of the false, defamatory and libelous statements he made against him.
It also demanded that the Special Adviser to the Governor should publish the retraction/apology in at least five National Dailies circulating within Benue State, as well as paid advertorials to the same effect on prime time belts of Arise News, Channels Television, AIT, TVC News, Nigerian Television Authority, Radio Benue and Harvest FM Makurdi.
Mkor is also required to write an undertaking not to indulge in any such false publication against Chief Ortom in future.
He is lastly required to pay ₦1 billion to the former Governor as exemplary, aggravated and general damages.