A former Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change(CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has dragged the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, before a Lagos High Court over alleged libelous comments made against him by Abati in The Guardian newspapers.
In the suit filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr. Tope Adebayo, the retired General alleged that Abati caused to be published in an edition of Guardian that he was behind the post election violence that rocked the country.
Buhari is asking the court to hold that the comments made by Abati were understood by the readers to mean “That the claimant (Buhari) advised his supporters to lynch anybody that tried to rig the polls; “That the claimant is an evil and unpatriotic citizen of Nigeria who incites and instigates insurrection against the government of Nigeria and is therefore unfit to be president; “That the claimant is a wicked and inhuman politician who will resort to killing and maiming people to achieve his political ambition; “That the claimant is a hypocrite and an unreliable person. incited and instigated the post election violence that erupted in the northern parts of the country.
The chambers of Tope Adebayo had earlier written to Abati to retract his statement, apologised to Buhari or risked legal action.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the case.?