Lawmaker Slams N500m Suit On Agip GM

The lawmaker representing Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Constituency II in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Lucky Odili has instituted a N500 million suit against the General Manager of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Mr Sabastiine Burrfato.

The matter, which came up Wednesday for hearing at the Port Harcourt High Court presided over by Justice  Iyayi Lamitanku with Suit No. PHC/C94/2012, was for defamation of  character and damaging the reputation of the  lawmaker.

Counsel to the plaintiff, Mr. H.C. Oputa, told  The Tide that the  defendants wrote  a damaging petition to the police against his client which turned out to be false, baseless and frivolous.

Mr. Oputa said the Rivers State  Police Command carried out a full scale investigation in the matter to ascertain the veracity of the allegation which border on threat to life and found it to be untrue.

The defence counsel, who does not want his name in print, told the court that Mr. Sabastine Burrafato has since been replace with another person as the General Manager of Agip but entered appearance  on behalf of his client.

The matter was however adjourned to October 22,2012.

A police report dated October 12,2012 signed  by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Agusutine Samomi, and made available to The Tide, said the General Manager, NAOC, Port Harcourt  District Mr Sabastine Burrafato Petitioned  to the Commissioner of Police on January  24,2011, alleging threat to his life.

Mr. Burrafato alleged that Hon. Lucky Odili, representing ONELGA Constituency II at the Assembly through a GSM text message on phone No. 08181635498, threatened to send his boys to make things difficult for him at OB/OB, an Agip Operaion base in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government  area.

The police said it forwarded the said number to the  appropriate GSM network providers for analysis  and the name of the alleged company not the lawmaker  was forwarded to the Corporate Affairs Commission and responses were received.

According to the investigation, “Chiefest Nigeria Enterprises, the company the suspect was said to be protecting by issuing the alleged threat by text, is an indigenous supply company owned and operated by one Mmanwoke  Jerry C. of No. 5 Akuru Street, Okwuzi, Egbema, as  Sole Proprietor”

Police also discovered that the said Mmanwoke Jerry C. is incidentally the owner of the GSM No. 08181635498 allegedly used in sending the threat message while further investigation revealed that NAOC is still transacting business with Mr. Mmanwoke Jerry C. and Chiefest Nigeria Enterprises till date.

The report, therefore, said the allegation of threat to life/company operations against the suspect was unsubstantiated, malicious and  totally baseless, particularly as the complainant  did not substantiate the allegations set out in the petition against the suspect, Hon. Lucky Odili.