By Ozioruva Aliu
BENIN CITY—AN Edo South Senatorial aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and a chieftain of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, yesterday, denied the cloning of Tuesday’s edition of Nggossips Newspaper, where the content of the front page indicated that he had won the senatorial ticket, based on the intervention of the National Working Committee of the party.
He has also threatened a legal proceeding against one Collins Osaghae, the Special Adviser on Digital Media to Governor Monday Okepbholo who he accused of sharing the cloned copy and accompanied it with statements he described as defamatory.
Speaking to some journalists in his house in Benin City, Ize-Iyamu said “These people are desperate and they want to soil my name and reputation. You imagine the mischief they wanted to do, they even went as far as saying that “I want to contest for the 2027 presidential election.”
Ize-Iyamu said as a party man, he directed all his supporters to vote for President Bola Tinubu during the primary election which he won convincingly “yet the mischief makers wrote that I want to be president.”
A letter from the Faithful Stewards solicitors to Osaghae, Ize-Iyamu said the allegation that their client cloned the front page of the edition of Nggossips Newspaper was false and the accompanying comments were libelous and demanded that Osaghae proved evidence that Ize-Iyamu forged the said headlines, authorized or participation in the circulation of the paper as alleged.
He said if these could not be proven within 48 hours, a letter of apology and retraction be published in selected seven television stations and seven national newspapers including posting them in the several online channels.
He also demanded N2 billion as reparation.
The law firm described Ize-Iyamu as “a responsible family head and a decent Nigerian citizen. He is a legal practitioner and one-time Chief of Staff, Secretary to Edo State Government, a politician and ordained Minister of God, a businessman and a farmer.”
He was shocked to receive the online statement which he described as libelous and that the words used about him were derogatory meant to “malign, denigrate and injure the hard-earned reputation of our client as it relates to his politician ambition for the seat of the Edo South Senatorial District in the circumstance”
Recall that Ize-Iyamu contested the Edo South Senatorial District and he is disputing the result announced by the party’s primary election committee where he came third after Senator Neda Imasuen and Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama who was declared winner while he is claiming victory of the same exercise.
Article Ize-Iyamu denies cloning Nggossips Newspaper Live On NgGossips.
