THE Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has given a seven-day ultimatum to the former Aviation minister, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode; and Mr. Lere Olayinka, the media aide to Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, to publicly apologise and pay the sum of N1.25 billion to him (Amaechi) for linking him to the seized Ikoyi N13 billion.
Amaechi had through his lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), written to Fani-Kayode and Olayinka, claiming that he (Amaechi) had been defamed by messages on the duos twitter timeline concerning the controversy surrounding the recovered money.
The immediate past governor of Rivers State warned that there would be stiff legal actions should Fani-Kayode and Olayinka fail to adhere to his demand over the alleged defamatory acts.
Amaechi had in the copies of the two letters dated 14th April, 2017 quoted the offensive aspect of Fani-Kayode and Olayinka respectively as, “The $43 million is Rotimi Amaechi’s. He owns the flat it was found in (sic) too. NIA’s story is fake news! NIA does not keep cash in minister’s flats.”
“The Osborne Towers, a luxury residential complex in Ikoyi, Lagos, where EFCC said it found $43,449,987, 27,800 pounds N23,218,000 on Wednesday is owned by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
“The house was built by Alhaji Adamu Muazu, the former Chairman of PDP, through a loan from GTBank. He could not repay the loan. So, GTBank took over the house and allocated the pent house to Muazu and two flats.
“Rotimi Amaechi bought TWO of the flats (7A and 7B). He then gave 7A to Mo Abdul, the TV presenter, who is suspected to be his girlfriend. But the flat where the money was found belong (sic) to Rotimi Amaechi. This is believed to be cash kept for 2019 elections. Let’s see how the cover-up game goes.”
Apart from the demand for an apology from the duo to be published in five national dailies and their twitter handle, Amaechi specifically asked for the sum of N500 million from Fani-Kayode “as compensation for the malicious and defamatory claim”.
He, however caution that the amount might increase should Fani-Kayode fail to address the situation as expected, while Olayinka was asked to also apologise in five national dailies and pay the sum of N750 million “as compensation for the malicious and defamatory claim” on his (Olayinka) twitter handle.
Parts of the letter to Fani-Kayode read, “The attention of our client has been drawn to your tweet posted on your twitter timeline (@realFFK) where you claimed that, ““The $43 million is Rotimi Amaechi’s. He owns the flat it was found in (sic) too. NIA’s story is fake news! NIA does not keep cash in minister’s flats.”
“In view of the foregoing and in the spirit of a second chance, we have our client’s (Amaechi) instruction to give you an ultimatum of seven days from the receipt of this letter to issue an apology in five national dailies on your twitter handle.
