Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the December 5 bye-election in Lagos East Tokunbo Abiru has filed a N1billion libel suit against the media director of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial campaign for the election Adetokunbo Pearse.
Mr Abiru filed the suit marked ID/ADR/1608/2020 through his lawyer Kemi Pinheiro at the Ikeja High Court in Lagos.
He said Mr Pearson caused malicious falsehood to be published and circulated against him on social media.
In his November 20 statement of claim, Abiru said that on October 4, his attention was drawn to a publication making the rounds on social media platforms, titled ‘Why Adetokunbo Mukail Abiru must be disqualified from 31st October 2020 Lagos East senatorial race.’
The publication, allegedly by Pearson, described Abiru as having the reputation of a rogue banker under whose watch Skye Bank collapsed.
“Today, Polaris Bank customers and shareholders are accusing him of fraud. His customers at the bank have convicted him of financial misconduct in the court of public opinion,” the publication alleged.
Abiru asked the court to direct the “defendant to tender an unreserved apology in the form and manner to be prescribed by the solicitors to the claimant and publish same in one full page insertion in three national dailies to wit: ThisDay, The Guardian and Punch Newspaper within 72 hours of the judgment of this Honourable Court, and all social media platforms including, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.”
The court is yet to set a date to hear the suit.
