Former DG of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) and Veteran musician, Onyeka Onwenu, is maintaining her stance and will not be obeying the court order given by Justice I. O. Akinkugbe, of the Ikeja High Court.
Onwenu was ordered by the judge to publicly apologise and pay N5m in a defamation of character suit filed against her by Chief Tony Okoroji, the Chairman of the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON.
According to reports by Punch, Onyeka Onwenu said:
“The judgment given by Justice Akinkugbe is most unfair and cannot stand. Throughout the trial, the plaintiff’s lawyer kept referring to the fact that I was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party and my appointment to office as Director General of the PDP but that I was serving under an APC Government.”
“My lawyer raised an objection as we did not think that my party affiliations had anything to do with the case at hand. But the judge to our consternation allowed that line of questioning. I am waiting to receive a copy of the judgment, at which point I will have more to say.”
“For now, I am certain that this judgment cannot and will not hold based on the fact that we were able dismiss the allegations convincingly and unequivocally. We are appealing the judgement, of course.”
“Mr. Tony Okoroji says a lot of things but he does not mean them. I shall provide a full rebuttal of the campaign of calumny that he is putting out against me in the aftermath of this judgment and more shall be revealed.”
“I hold no personal grudge against him, my quarrels with him have always been on issues of probity and fair play.”
“I have been very much there for Okoroji for so long and in many more ways than I care to remember.”
“I respect his intellect and I’ve said so on many fora, but I will not stand by and watch him attempt to destroy the very reputation that he has found and made use of personally and officially in the past.”
“Some of us left the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria for him to run aground, in order to avoid his trouble. He is hoping we will do the same with regard to the Copyright Society of Nigeria. That wish will not be granted.”
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