Arise News anchor Rufai Oseni has criticized the defamation lawsuit filed against Kenneth Okonkwo, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), by the legal team of Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi.
Obi took the actor-turned-politician to court following allegations Okonkwo made concerning the conduct of the NDC primary elections in the South-East region.
Okonkwo had claimed during a recent interview that Obi and other regional party leaders accepted bribes from aspirants vying for senatorial and House of Representatives tickets.
Obi’s camp strongly rejected the allegations, responding with a defamation suit and a seven-day ultimatum for Okonkwo to retract his statement.
Reacting to the development on the Arise TV morning show, Rufai referred to Okonkwo as a “political surrogate” and argued that Obi should not spend his time pursuing the legal battle.
According to the broadcaster, the legal action only served to draw more attention to the allegations, noting that the claims only gained widespread attention after the lawsuit was filed.
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He said, “If I’m to advise Mr Peter Obi, I would ask him to remove that case from the court.”
“He doesn’t need. I can bet you that a lot of people did not even hear when Kenneth Okonkwo said it. It became news when Peter Obi sued him.”
“You just gave a media traction to this guy, allow him to talk as he wants, the best you can do is to refute it. It is not everything you react to”.
