NCDMB dismisses pejury allegation against Wabote as charade

Sopuruchi Onwuka

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has dismissed allegations of perjury against its Executive Secretary, Engr Simbi Wabote, as disingenuous and diversionary tactic to stampede into dropping his suit challenging allegations that he operates a foreign account.

According to Corporate Communications Manager at the NCDMB, Esueme Dan Kikile, all third parties and civil society groups being hoodwinked into false presumptions about the proceedings on the case against an online news platform should be credible enough to seek details and facts of the matter.

The statement from the NCDM reads:

Our attention has been drawn to a report on page 4 of the Guardian Newspaper of Thursday, 20^th January 2022 and a few online platforms purporting that the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and a coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) had given a 21-day ultimatum to Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi KesiyeWabote to step down from his position to allow investigation of alleged perjury against him.

Ordinarily, we would have ignored the report, as we have done previously, considering that the matter is sub judice. However, we are constrained to make this rejoinder, without interfering with the subject matter of the suit pending before the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, because of the platform that the story was reported: The Guardian, which prides itself as the flagship of Nigerian journalism.

This rejoinder is to set the records straight and dismiss the wicked tissues of lies being spewed by Jackson Ude .

1. This publication is another desperate attempt by Jackson Ude and his co-travellers to stampede the Executive Secretary into abandoning the libel suit he instituted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Jackson Ude, for defaming his character through a false and libellous article in Pointblanknews.com in May 2021.

• The accusation of perjury is another wild accusation by Jackson Ude and his legal team who are completely bereft of ideas on how to respond to the substantive case before the court and have resorted to throwing bogus and distracting allegations in the hope that one would stick, having realised that his initial accusation that Engr. Wabote operates a foreign bank account has come to a dead end.

• For the avoidance of doubt, Engr. Wabote has categorically stated that he does not operate any foreign account and there is no evidence to the contrary. So, if Jackson Ude has evidence of a foreign account, the onus is on him to prove his case conclusively. This is the law in Nigeria and even in the United States: He who alleges bears the burden to prove.

• Nigerians consider the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) as a veritable alternative voice, we are therefore surprised that it is hoodwinked into being used for this insidious activity by Jackson Ude. Indeed, our expectation is for CNPP and the CSOs to commend Engr. Wabote for seeking redress through legal means using the instrumentality of the judicial process, as this is what CSOs advocate for in every clime.

• Therefore, the call for Engr. Wabote to step aside is completely disingenuous and lacking in merit and should not be taken seriously by any group, organization, or person. We implore CNPP and any reasonable coalition of CSOs to get the facts of the defamation case rather than allowing itself to be used as vessel of misinformation.

• For the avoidance of doubt, it was Engr. Wabote in his personal capacity that dragged Jackson Ude to the court in the United States because the latter published an injurious article where he accused Engr. Wabote of taking a bribe for the award of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Train 7 project. Engr. Wabote was outraged by that malicious and unfounded accusation that he vowed to seek legal redress to vindicate himself and preserve his hard-earned reputation.

• Engr. Wabote approached the United States court because Jackson Ude has no known address in Nigeria and all previous attempts to bring him to justice for years of blackmail and falsehood against other senior Government officials, had failed. In fact, Jackson Ude sneered and challenged Engr. Wabote to institute the case in the United States if he felt sufficiently aggrieved.

• Since the lawsuit was filed and hearing began, Jackson Ude and his cohorts have continued to issue misleading and vexatious publications and continued with their campaign of calumny against Engr. Wabote, instead of facing squarely the case in court by producing evidence to prove the accusation of bribe taking which is made against Engr. Wabote in the article for which he was sued.

• The fact of the matter is that Jackson Ude and his cohorts have continued to suffer colossal losses in the pending lawsuit, which he has desperately sought to truncate without success, knowing that he has no defence to the claim.

1. As soon as the lawsuit was instituted in the United States, Ude realized that he had nowhere again to hide because he had no answer to the case of defamation hanging over his neck. Thus, he began to use all manner of legal tricks, including filing counterclaims, questioning the court’s jurisdiction, and whether the United States court was the proper venue to hear the case. He urged the court to return the matter to Nigeria. His intent, no doubt, was to get the case dismissed, but none of his tricks worked. All his arguments failed and were denied.

1. It is for the above reason that Jackson Ude has resorted to blackmail, campaign of calumny and other devious and mischievious publications to attract public sympathy against Engr. Wabote. This will not deter Engr. Wabote from pursuing the case of defamation and criminal libel against Jackson Ude to a logical conclusion.

1. Engr. Wabote is of the firm view that the activities of blackmailers such as Jackson Ude and his cohorts will never end if firm and resolute legal and judicial steps such as the one he has instituted in the United States is not taken against them.

1. It is to this end that we caution all serious-minded news platforms and lovers of justice and the rule of law to resist the temptation of yielding their platforms to Jackson Ude and his group of blackmailers to continue spewing their falsehood on the ongoing court case. We expect media platforms to apply professionalism in reporting the story and avoid following the path of Pointblanknews.com and its company.