The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Cross River and the chairman of the party in the state have been dragged to court over alleged defamation.
A chieftain of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Cross River, Barrister Eyo Nsa Ekpo is demanding N100 million from the PDP for falsely claiming he is a member of the ruling party.
In the suit (HC/268/2013) filed at a Calabar High Court, the plaintiff claimed that he was thoroughly embarrassed when the defendants consistently and continuously published and or caused to be published both on radio and television services of the Cross River Broadcasting Corporation, CRBC, a list of PDP caucuses and elders forum members in Odukpani Local Government and included the name of the claimant as a member of the PDP Elders Forum in Odukpani Local Government Area.
The plaintiff further claimed that on May 7, 2013, he wrote the defendants [PDP] seeking a retraction of the said publication, adding that the defendants on May 10, 2013, further caused the publication of “the same false, malicious and offensive materials concerning the claimant in the Nigerian Chronicle Newspapers of same date.
“In between these two offensive publications, the defendants caused another offensive vile, false and malicious publication to the effect that the claimant has been dropped from the list of members of the defendants’ Elders Forum, the clear imputation being that the claimant is a member of PDP.”
Barrister Ekpo averred that “by reason of the false, vile, derogatory and malicious publications, the claimant has been injured in his reputation and character.”
He is therefore demanding from PDP the sum of N100 million for the damage done to his reputation as well as N500, 000 being cost of litigation.
Though the court processes have been reportedly served on the defendants, the state chairman of the party, Ntufam John Okon however denied knowledge of the matter.