A journalist with the New Telegraph newspaper has threatened to sue the Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Adamu Muazu, over the alleged refusal of the disbanded PDP Presidential Declaration Committee, to settle N6.9m advertisement debt.
The newspaper gave the party two week-ultimatum to settle the debt or face legal action.
The organisation in the petition by a Kaduna-based lawyer, Festus Okoye, claimed that the committee, headed by Senator Aniete Okon, failed to settle advertisements it placed in several newspapers on December 24, 2014.
Okoye, in the petition, dated May 11, 2015, stated that his client, Ibrahim Musa, the Bureau Chief of New Telegraph newspaper in Kaduna State, had placed centre-spread advertisements in Daily Trust, Leadership, The Sun and Vanguard newspapers on the instruction of Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, a member of the PDP Presidential Declaration Committee.
The petition reads, “Our client has exercised sufficient restraint in relation to the payment for these advertisements and his integrity and the livelihood of some of his colleagues are at stake.
“We plead that you use your good offices to ensure that our client is paid to enable him to meet his own commitments to his colleagues and their newspapers. Our client has given us the mandate to use all legal and constitutional means to affirm the integrity of the contract but we feel that we should explore an amicable resolution of this matter.”
However, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said he was not aware of the petition, noting, however, that the Declaration Committee was not created by the PDP, but by the Presidency.
He said, “No, I am not aware of the letter. Until I see a copy of the letter, I cannot comment, but the Committee wasn’t set up by the party; it was a creation of the Presidency”.
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