The Federal lawmaker Mansur Manu Soro, who represents Darazo-Ganjuwa in the House of Representatives, has filed a lawsuit against WikkiTimes. The lawsuit is in response to a report that exposed Soro’s use of a briefcase company, Sahel Global Desert Energy Ltd, to carry out fictitious constituency projects worth millions of Naira.
The lawmaker uses his ally, Abubakar Abdullahi who is a director of Sahel Global Desert Emergy Limited, to sue WikkiTimes over the publication.
Joined in the lawsuit are; Yawale Adamu (the reporter), and Haruna Salisu Mohammed, the chief executive officer of WikkiTimes.
In the filing papers, WikkiTimes was accused of “injurious falsehood, criminal defamation and mischief”.
The WikkiTimes report, titled “How Bauchi Rep Member, Mansur Soro Executes Fictitious, Shoddy Constituency Projects Through Suitcase Company Owned by a Close Associate,” details how the lawmaker violated the Public Procurement Act by using a company in which he has a stake to execute substandard and non-existent contracts.
The lawmaker through his surrogate prayed the court to “take cognicance of offences bothering on injurious falsehood, criminal defamation and mischief against the organisation.” The lawsuit also demanded WikkiTimes to withdraw the publication, tender a public apology and pay N2 million for damages and compensation and another N500,000 as cost of instituting the lawsuit.
In a press statement issued after the publication, the lawmaker vowed not to take legal action against WikkiTimes, saying; “Mansur Manu Soro has therefore choosen not to be deterred by this and have aligned himself with former Head of State General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) when he was asked whether he will take legal redress against a person who accused him of sponsoring Boko Haram insurgency the former General simply replied “I won’t dignify him.There’s indeed, no time to waste in this “quickly-passing world”
It would be recalled that WikkiTimes reported how the lawmaker uses a company which has no records of undertaking similar projects in the past-having been registered in April 2019 as an energy firm and not construction company, was paid the various amounts in 2021 for the construction of a maternity, rural earth road and an earth dam.
The report further noted that “Sahel Global Desert Energy housed at No 65 Tudun Wada Soro, the birthplace of the lawmaker, was paid more than N20 million for the construction of a maternity and child health clinic at Gabciyari in two installments. WikkiTimes investigation shows that the hospital was never constructed.”
The Sahel Global Desert Energy Ltd was also awarded another contract for the construction of a Maternal and Child Health Centre in Gungura, Ganjuwa LGA, a project similar to that of Gabciyari.
Read full report here
