An High Court in Port-Harcourt will resume sitting on Friday, May 24, 2019, on a legal suit brought before it by a former governor of Rivers State, Sir (Dr.) Peter Odili.
Dr. Odili is in court to seek justice over an allegation made against him by two co-authors of a book who alleged that he co-funded a campaign for an alleged third term for former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was in office as president from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007.
The co-authors of the book, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu and Ms Ayisha Osori, said in their book that Dr. Odili and his then Bauchi State counterpart, Adamu Muazu, allegedly funded a campaign for third term for former President Obasanjo.
They also said in their book of how a politician in Rivers State, Marshal Harry, was assassinated days after he had disagreement with Dr. Odili who was then governor of Rivers State.
In their book, “Too Good To Die: Third Term and the Myth of the Indispensable Man In Africa”, the two co-authors of the book said that former President Obasanjo allegedly spent millions of dollars to try to actualize his alleged third term bid which, according to them, he wanted to achieve through an amendment of the country’s Constitution, but they said that the bill for the proposed extension of tenure for the president was thrown out by the National Assembly.
The two co-authors said in their book that “the corporate trail disclosed a deep financial bond between the President, Senator Ararume and the governments of Bauchi and Rivers States, then ruled, respectively by two of President Obasanjo’s closest governorship acolytes, Adamu Muazu and Peter Odili, who were at the centre of shadowy, complex, unlawful and almost certaining, criminal financial operations behind third term”.
Odili had said in his lawsuit that the two co-authors of the book brought him into public ridicule in the way they portrayed him in the book, saying that the book creates a negative impression about him in the minds of reasonable people across the world who have read it, including eminent scholars in the United States of America.
He also said that he took note of parts of the book where the co-authors narrated how Marshal Harry was assassinated after they had had a disagreement.
The authors cited a letter believed to have been written by Marshal Harry to the police where he complained that “since we started the preparation for the presidential flag-off campaign, we have noticed a high spate of arrest, intimidation, harassment and maiming of our party officials, candidates and supporters by Odili’s thugs with the assistance of the police”.
Odili had said in his lawsuit that the co-authors of the book should make a public apology for the way they portrayed him in their book and should pay N1billion as damages.
At a sitting by the court, the presiding judge of the High Court, Justice Augusta Chukwu, ruled that there should be no further publication of the book by the two co-authors until the hearing of the “substantial” suit and had adjourned the case to 12th of April, 2019.
She gave her ruling based on an application for an interlocutory injunction which was brought by the counsel to Dr. Odili, Kanu Agabi (SAN), which sought to restrain the co-authors of the book from further publication of copies of the book.
The presiding judge said in her ruling at the time that the facts before her showed that the plaintiff had not done anything “reprehensible” and said that it was the duty of the court to protect the reputation of anyone who would come before it for justice.
However, counsel to the two co-authors, Barrister Idaye Opi, said at the time that he would appeal against the ruling.
Opi said: “The first one we are appealing against is about the interlocutory order she made restraining us from further publication of the book. Of course, we are going to also follow up with the issues relating to her refusal to dismiss the action on ground of preliminary objection including the order she made refusing to withdraw from the case”.
Opi said that the appeal was filed at the Court of Appeal in Port-Harcourt.
However, no date has been fixed for the case by the court of appeal.
