The judgment last week by Justice A.A. Oyebanji of the Lagos State High Court restraining the self-acclaimed factional President of PMAN, Mr. Pretty Okafor from further defaming COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji is reverberating within the nation’s entertainment industry. Justice Oyebanji also awarded two million naira in general damages to Chief Tony Okoroji.
Www.dailynewscover.com went in search of Mr. James Ononiwu of Whitedove Solicitors, the lawyer who represented Chief Okoroji in the wave making suit, for his reaction to the judgment. According to Mr. Ononiwu, Pretty Okafor has got what he deserves.
With emphasis, the fiery Lagos lawyer said, “Pretty Okafor deserves nobody’s mercy. In my career as a lawyer, I have never witnessed such recklessness. The case was not about one defamatory statement but relates to a never-ending series of the demolition of the character and good name of an innocent man. Day after day, week after week, month after month, Pretty Okafor kept spewing and spreading vicious and malicious lies against Chief Tony Okoroji who has done nothing to him.
“I wrote a letter to Okafor asking him to desist from what he was doing and he got a lawyer to reply me boasting that he would sue Chief Okoroji for 500 Million Naira because Okoroji did not refer to him as PMAN President! He in fact accelerated the assassination of the character of Chief Tony Okoroji and the trashing of the COSON name and brand. When we took him to court and the processes were served on him, he showed zero respect for the courts. With utmost contempt, he stepped up the daily assassination of the character of Chief Okoroji. For now, I am not concerned about the quantum of damages. I am very happy that Chief Okoroji has floored Pretty Okafor and exposed him for who he is.
“Please, nobody should appeal to Chief Tony Okoroji to have mercy on Pretty Okafor. Okafor is completely undeserving of it. His behaviour has been atrocious. As Edmund Burke said, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ The courts have spoken. I am a lawyer and my client has asked me to ensure that the judgment is executed to the fullest. That will be done. If he goes to the Supreme Court, we will go to the Supreme Court with him. Everybody will learn a lesson from Pretty Okafor’s misadventure. The biggest mistake Pretty Okafor made was to think that Chief Tony Okoroji is like the kind of people he is used to dealing with. Unfortunately for him, Chief Tony Okoroji is not noisy. He is knowledgeable, serious, patient, calm and methodical”
Mr. Ononiwu was emphatic that if Pretty Okafor makes the mistake of publishing any other defamatory statement against Chief Okoroji, his instructions are to immediately file another lawsuit against Okafor.
Www.dailynewscover.com investigations reveal that Pretty Okafor’s never-ending attack on Chief Tony Okoroji began after Chief Okoroji commissioned the magnificent COSON House in Ikeja in style in 2017. The edifice had been built without any government contribution, no grant, no loan and no debt. COSON House is the only property of its type belonging to any creative industry group in Nigeria. Suddenly, COSON became very attractive to those who had hitherto ignored the organization as it also became known that COSON had several millions in the bank. Midnight meetings began to be held to get rid of Chief Okoroji. The plan was for his name to be simultaneously smeared by several music industry collaborators using different platforms and his significant integrity destroyed to make the takeover of COSON possible. Pretty Okafor sat on top of the assault by the gang to demolish Chief Tony Okoroji.
They took him to the EFCC with manufactured and concocted facts. After some months, the matter died. They organized men of SARS, armed to the teeth, to come from Abuja to over-run COSON House and hand over the magnificent building and the resources of COSON to them. After about one hour, the men of SARS were recalled and went back to Abuja.
Said Mr. Ononiwu, “In 2019, the Police CID in Abuja was programmed to arrest Chief Tony Okoroji and to parade him as a common criminal. The senior police officer who called to summon Chief Okoroji to Abuja later called to profusely apologize to him and even called me to beg that I appeal to Chief Okoroji for forgiveness as it had become clear that an attempt had been made to use the police to do harm to an innocent Nigerian citizen.
“The same group conspired and ensured that criminal charges were filed against Chief Tony Okoroji by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) an organization which Chief Okoroji worked tirelessly to ensure its establishment. The criminal charges were announced on radio and TV across Nigeria. They were desperate to send this exceptional Nigerian to jail for their own greed. Their gambit failed as a judge of the Federal High Court saw through their devious plans. Okoroji was never docked”.
In the words of Mr. Ononiwu, “They plotted and shut down the bank accounts of COSON in several banks with the certainty that without access to any money, COSON and Okoroji would be ground to a halt. They did not know who they were dealing with. When that scheme failed, they plotted another arrangement and began a loud call for a “forensic audit” of the accounts of COSON which they know has been diligently audited every year. Of course, their plan is a well programmed witch hunt with which they think they would finally extinguish Chief Tony Okoroji”.
Www.dailynewscover.com learnt that to deal with the onslaught. Chief Tony Okoroji filed multiple defamation suits against different members of the group. Now that one of the ring leaders has fallen, the question is: What will happen to the other members of the group? Mr. Ononiwu is certain, that one by one, they will all fall.
Ononiwu insists that the big mistake made by the traducers of Okoroji is that they tried to take on a good man, a man who is widely loved by thousands of members of COSON. During the current coronavirus lockdown, despite the freezing of COSON Bank accounts, Okoroji ensured that each of the thousands of members of COSON received some money to help them ameliorate the suffering caused by the biting effects of the pandemic. About 72.5 million naira was approved by the COSON Board for the exercise and Chief Okoroji on social media personally gave a constant account of how the money was being distributed.
Said the popular lawyer, “The man Okoroji is a workaholic. He calls me 24 to 25 times a day and he is a stickler for perfection. He does not take chances. He looks at legal processes with an eagle eye, like a thorough bred lawyer. A lot of times, we argue on points of law. The man is incredibly hard-working, diligent, disciplined and above all, he has little interest in personal wealth. He is ready to give out all he has just to make sure that the right things are done. He loves the members of COSON and treats each of them as a member of his family. He considers the problem of any COSON member as his problem. You cannot imagine how many calls he takes every day.
I have learnt so much from him. Even as a lawyer, concerning the legal profession, I have learnt a lot from him. Chief Tony Okoroji is a stickler for due process and the rule of law. I easily recommend this man to be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria although I know that our system does not allow good men like this. He is a good man. He is a good man”.
Culled from www.dailynewscover.com.
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