We are Solicitors to Bashorun Dele Momodu (hereinafter referred to as “our client”) on whose instructions we write.
Our client’s instructions are summarized as follows:1. Our client is the Presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), a registered political party in Nigeria.
2. By your letter dated March 7, 2011 our client was invited to take part in the presidential debate scheduled to hold at Abuja on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. He promptly wrote to accept your invitation.
3. However, without any legal justification whatsoever you have excluded our client from the debate and thereby caused him untold embarrassment and denied him the opportunity to take advantage of the programme to sell his programmes to the electorate.
4. By the unlawful exclusion of our client from the Presidential Debate you have recklessly violated section 100 of the Electoral Act which states as follows:
“1. A candidate and his party shall campaign for the elections in accordance with such rules and regulation as may be determined by the Commission.
2. State apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election.
3. Media time shall be allocated equally among the political parties or candidates at similar hours of the day.
4. At any public, electronic media, equal airtime shall be allotted to all political parties or candidates during prime times at similar house each day, subject to the payment of appropriate fees.
5. At any public print media, equal coverage and conspicuity shall be allotted to all political parties”
5. The illegal exclusion is also a violation of the fundamental right of our client to freedom from discrimination on political ground guaranteed by Section 42 of the Constitution and Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In the light of the foregoing we have our client’s firm instructions to sue you at the Federal High Court to claim substantial damages for violating his fundamental right to freedom from discrimination and initiate criminal proceedings against you pursuant to pursuant to Section 100(6) of the Electoral Act which provides as follows:
“ A public media that contravenes subsections (3) and (4) of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 in the first instance and to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 for subsequent conviction”.
Yours sincerely,
Femi Falana
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