Nigeria’s Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo Wednesday said he has ordered legal action against Timi Frank and Katch Ononuju for libel and malicious falsehood.
“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank, and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods,” Osinbajo tweeted on Wednesday.
“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique had mostly been making the social media rounds anonymously,” he added.
He noted that he was ready to waive his constitutional immunity to clear his name against several allegations, insinuation, and falsehoods on his person and office.
Osinbajo’s spokesman Laolu Akande said earlier on Tuesday that there will “be a legal and proper reckoning” for the “barrage of libellous claims against VP Osinbajo mostly on WhatsApp and elsewhere on Social Media by mostly faceless people.”
Frank, a former deputy publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, accused Osinbajo of mismanaging N90 billion allegedly provided by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as campaign funds 2019 elections.
Frank did not provide any evidence to support his latest claim. The FIRS has since debunked Mr Frank’s allegation. On Monday, FIRS spokesman Wahab Gbadamosi dismissed the claim, saying the agency’s annual allocation is not up to N90 billion.
“The attention of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has been drawn to publication in some online and daily newspapers by a certain Comrade Timi Frank, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who claimed that the FIRS supported the`APC, through the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with a phantom N90 billion.”
“IT IS NOT PLAUSIBLE nor DOES IT MAKE ANY SENSE that FIRS will commit its resources to a phantom campaign of N90 billion as suggested by Mr. Timi Frank and FIRS does not fund political associations,” Gbadamosi said