Ned Nwoko, Peter Nwaoboshi
By Victory Oghene
The dispute between the Senator representing Delta North senatorial district, Senator Ned Munir Nwoko and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi has continued with increased acrimony.
So intense is the squabble that Senator Nwoko, has taken legal action against Senator Nwaoboshi, raising concerns about defamation and outright lies.
The suit, filed on Monday, in the Federal High Court in Abuja, raised that Nwaoboshi, who received a prison sentence on July 1, 2022, from the appellate court in Lagos State due to a two-count money laundering conviction, is leveling accusations against Senator Ned Nwoko as the instigator of his imprisonment.
He claims that Nwoko and the immediate past Attorney General of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, conspired to put him in prison.
Nwaoboshi, the former Senator for Delta North Senatorial District, spent over a year in a correctional center due to a billion-naira loan deal he insisted he had no involvement in.
The crux of the lawsuit centers on Nwaoboshi’s public statements after his release from prison, during which he made derogatory remarks about Senator Nwoko and the judiciary.
He implied that Nwoko had bribed judges to secure his imprisonment.
The lawsuit also raised that, Nwaoboshi, in one of his interviews claimed that Nwoko paid the sum of $1.5 million to judges to put him in prison. Such unsubstantiated statements according to the suit, were derogatory not only towards Senator Nwoko but also towards the integrity of the judiciary itself.
In an interview with The Nation newspaper, Nwaoboshi was quoted as saying that during his legal proceedings, they had influenced justices with funds from the Paris Club, offering one of the justices an appointment in the Supreme Court of Nigeria to sway the judgment in their favour.
Nwaoboshi’s accusations could inadvertently create skepticism regarding the trustworthiness of judges, insinuating that they can be easily swayed by external influences. This raises concerns about the broader implications of his statements on the judicial system and the public’s perception of its integrity.
In the suit, Senator Ned Nwoko argued that, Nwaoboshi linking him to his many legal travails is a malicious scheme to inflame passion against him (Ned) in the desperation that doing so will aid his quest to nullify the last senatorial election on 25 February 2023 which heldwhile he (Nwaoboshi) was incarcerated.
Senator Nwoko is seeking,
“The sum of N500, 000, 000, 000. 00 (five hundred billion naira) damages for defamation of character.”
“An order directing the defendant to publish an open apology in at least two (2) newspapers circulating nationwide, to the claimant.”
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant either by himself or through his privies further defaming the name, character and person of the claimant through any medium whatsoever or verbally.”
Senator Nwoko is also seeking, “ANY other suitable legal or equitable reliefs as the court may deem necessary.”
Nwoko is also pressing Nwaoboshi to provide specific details. He insists that Nwaoboshi must name the judges involved in the alleged misconduct, particularly the one he vowed to stop from being promoted to the Supreme Court.
