A newspaper – The New Telegraph – which is owned by the former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has threatened to sue the Peoples Democatic Party (PDP) over non payment of advertisement worth about N6.9 Million.
The New Telegraph, speaking via a petition addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, threatened that if the party does not pay the debt within two weeks, it would be sued to court.
The owner of the newspaper had made a controversial statement on Channels TV where he claimed that the elections in South East were rigged by the PDP and that the victory of the All Progressives Congress was the making of Bola Tinubu and himself to the detriment of the PDP.
The New Telegraph in the petition filed by Festus Okoye, a Kaduna based lawyer, alleged that the committee headed by Senator Aniete Okon failed to settle advertisements bill it placed in several newspapers on Wednesday, December 24, 2014.
The attorney in his petition dated Monday, May 11, 2015 revealed that his client, the Bureau Chief of New Telegraph newspaper in Kaduna State had placed centre spread advertisemts in Daily Trust, Leadership, The Sun and Vanguard newspapers on the instruction of Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, a member of the PDP Presidential Declaration Committee.
Okoye added that four months after, several efforts to get the committee to pay up his pledge was to no avail.
The petition partly read, “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 newspaper medium.
“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, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, sdenied being aware of the petition, stating that the declaration committee was not created by the PDP, but by the Presidency.
In his words; “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.”
