Port Harcourt Airport runway: Retract statements or face legal action —Fani-Kayode tells Amaechi

THE former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has told the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to retract some statements he made while granting an interview on a television station on April 27, 2017 within 14 days or face legal action before a competent court of law where he will seek redress if the minister fails to comply with the mitigating measures he has listed.

Fani-Kayode, through his counsel, Wale Balogun of DPC Attorneys and Solicitors, made the demand in a letter titled, ‘Defamation of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode by Hon Rotimi Amaechi in an interview with the Channels television and dated May 1, 2017.

The letter from Fani-Kayode’s counsel asked that Amaechi retracts the said “insalubrious remarks” on the same station and also apologise to him on same station and two other national dailies while he is to pay N5billion for penitence.

“You are also advised to enter into negotiations with us for the sum of five billion naira, being a token amount for penitence, as opposed to the magnitude of infraction caused to our client’s nobility,” the letter demanded.

Fani-Kayode’s counsel in the letter had alleged that Amaechi disparaged their client in his remarks in the eyes of right thinking members of the society when he stated that as minister, he failed to repair the Port Harcourt airport runway with the sum of N2billion transferred for the purpose to the Ministry of Aviation by the Rivers State government under the administration of Governor Peter Odili.

The letter added that apart from the fact that that there is no modicum of truth in the “obnoxious, wild and unsubstantiated” remarks, it is on a verifiable  record that Messrs Julius Berger Nig. Plc was contracted for the asphalt resurfacing of the Port Harcourt airport Runway.

“Beyond that, the project was concluded within seven months of our client’s occupation of the office as Minister of Aviation and the completion exercise was commissioned by Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke. All these pieces of information are in the public domain and overtly to your knowledge.

“Without mincing words, you have disparaged our clients by your remarks in the eyes of right thinking members of the society and those remarks have been found to be false and slanderous of him,” the letter added.

The lawyers added that their client has not only suffered loss of goodwill, but has now been subjected to opprobrium by his fans, followers and business associates, adding that being conscious of his rights in law and equity, Fani-Kayode is minded to afford Amaechi an opportunity to undo the evil he had done.

The letter concluded that if Amaechi fails to comply with the highlighted mitigating measures, Fani-Kayode will be left with no other alternative than to seek redress in court, adding that the said redress shall include a claim that Amaechi is unfit to continue to hold the office of the Minister of Transportation because his alleged defamatory and slanderous remarks were borne out of an inept appreciation of basic workings and operations of the aviation sector.