Hir Joseph
10 October 2008
Makurdi — A former National Auditor of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Godwin Dabo' Adzuana has taken Mr. Clement Uhondo, the leading critic of Benue State governor, Gabriel Tor-Suswam, to the Makurdi High Court, claiming N300 million general damages on his (Uhondo's) controversial open letter to the governor.
Dabo, himself an anti-corruption crusader wants the court to try Uhondo for calling him a "flatterer and sycophant" for Governor Suswam. Uhondo had not only written the gover-nor to make the allegation of high level corruption in the award of contracts and other alleged back hand deals, but also went to court to swear an affidavit that he stood by the document which he copied to anti graft bodies including EFCC and ICPC.
In suit number MHC/252/2008 filed at the registry of the Makurdi High Court, Dabo'-Adzuana is asking the court to grant an order directing Mr. Uhondo to produce relevant documents to prove his case against him (Dabo'Adzuana) as mentioned in the petition against the governor.
Dabo' also urged the court to make an order of perpetual injunction restraining the de-fendants from further writing and circulating alleged false-hood against him and the governor. He sought an order directing the defendant to tender a letter of apology to him on the allegation contained in the petition that he (Dabo) is a sycophant for Suswam. He said he would not have gone to court if Uhondo did not directly mention his name in the petition.
Uhondo, a former state lawmaker told newsmen in a telephone chat that he still stood by his petition and would not withdraw it since he was fully aware of the consequen-ces of doing so. "Dabo' wrote against Tarka, nobody con-demned him. Akure wrote against Aku, he was not condemned and the same for Abubakar Tsav who wrote against Akume without con-demnation.
What is happening is intimidation and they want me to recant. When you recant cri-minal allegations it is dange-rous", Uhondo said. He also denied being sponsored to write the open letter to Suswam, noting that he wrote the letter in the interest of Benue people as he was interested in the development of the state.
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