After failing for more than a week to carry out his threat of
filing a lawsuit against SaharaReporters in New York, and
against The Punch and Premium Times in Nigeria, Nigeria’s
former Minister of State for Defense, Musiliu Obanikoro,
seemed to have chickened out by having a New York-based
law firm send a mere warning letter to SaharaReporters.
Musiliu Obanikoro
A former senator, Mr. Obanikoro had been threatening legal
action against SaharaReporters since the website first
released, on February 5th, an audio recording in which he and
other PDP officials are heard plotting to illegally manipulate
the 2014 Ekiti State governorship election. The ex-Defense
minister and his co-conspirators, including now Governor Ayo
Fayose, are heard in turns berating Brigadier General A.A.
Momoh and promising him promotions and other inducements
for helping the PDP in its scheme to handicap APC members
during the elections.
In the recording released by SaharaReporters, Mr. Obanikoro
is heard stating that he was on “special assignment” from
President Goodluck Jonathan to make sure the election was
carried by the governorship candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).
In a statement he gave to The Breaking Times, a Nigeria news
site linked to Mr. Obanikoro, Mr. Obanikoro falsely claimed
that his lawyers had served SaharaReporters with court
papers last week, and that SaharaReporters had 42 days to
prepare its defense.
Instead, a New York law firm emailed a warning letter to
SaharaReporters on February 19th asking SaharaReporters to
“cease and desist from making false and disparaging
statements about Sen. Obanikoro on the Internet.” Under US
rules of legal proceedings, such a letter does not amount to a
lawsuit itself.
Since SaharaReporters first released the audio recording, a
third party consultancy firm, Guardian Consulting, has
authenticated Mr. Obanikoro as the voice offering a bribe to
Brigadier General A.A. Momoh. In addition to the secret
recording, a sworn affidavit was signed by a whistleblower
present during the meeting where Mr. Obanikoro illegally
bribed the army officer and plotted to rig the Ekiti State
elections in 2014.
The warning letter sent to SaharaReporters also substantiates
that Mr. Obanikoro was present during the meeting where
plans were made to illegally manipulate the Ekiti State
elections even though claims the conversations were vague
and only relates to how the conspirators would ensure
security .
Mr. Obanikoro’s warning letter comes just as he awaits
Senate confirmation of his nomination by President Jonathan
to a ministerial post. Analysts and observers, however, argue
that Senator Obanikoro is trying to give a false impression of
legal action against SaharaReporters in order to ease through
his confirmation hearings.
The law offices of Tacopina and Seigel sent the warning letter
on behalf of Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro. For days, Mr. Obanikoro
and websites/social media outlets associated with him had
made bones about Mr. Tacopina’s law firm as a firm that
famously represented American baseball sensation Alex “A-
Rod” Rodriguez in a case which he lost.