Obasanjo was a school dropout, Kashamu tells court

ABUJA—Justice Valentine Ashi of the Federal Capital
Territory High Court has fixed July 28 to commence hearing
on the N20billion libel suit instituted against former
President Olusegun Obasanjo by a chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West, Mr. Buruji
Kashamu.
This came as the duo engaged in a fresh war-of-words, with
the plaintiff alleging before the court that the erstwhile
President was a school dropout.
Piqued  by the fact that Obasanjo in his statement of
defence to the suit, described him as “a drug pusher with
neither local nor international reputation”, Kashamu fired
back, calling the ex-president ”a social misfit.”
”The plaintiff acknowledges that the defendant
(Obasanjo),was a poverty-stricken dropout from school and
otherwise a social misfit who eventually found fame and
fortune by joining the Armed Forces of Nigeria and
benefitting disproportionately from opportunism of military
adventure into governance in Nigeria.”
Kashamu told the court that “Obasanjo’s vaunted
international acclaim was tested in 2008 when the former
President contested for the position of the Secretary-
General of the United Nations with a barely known diplomat
from Egypt. The defendant (Obasanjo) was put in his place
as he failed to fly the flag of the nation successfully and lost
the contest disgracefully.”
Kashamu insisted that Obasanjo’s claims in his statement
of defence constituted “an aggravation of the libel charge
before the court.”
He said Obasanjo’s use of his “touted national and
international acclaim to malign more productive members
of the society is uncalled for and could be symptomatic of
megalomania.”
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Meanwhile, the former President who had earlier resolved
not to personally testify in the matter, had in his statement
of defence, described Kashamu as a notorious debtor and a
man lacking in local and international reputation.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit for being “frivolous,
speculative and gold digging”, insisting that no reasonable
cause of action was established against him.
Kashamu had in his suit, claimed that Obasanjo, ‘murdered’
his reputation via a letter he (Obasanjo), sent to both
President Goodluck Jonathan and the immediate past
National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
Kashamu told the court that the defendant, maliciously and
recklessly published a letter titled, “Before it is too late,”
which he said contained distorted facts.
He argued that the criminal imputation made against him by
Obasanjo in his letter, greatly injured his public image.
He prayed the court to award in his favour, and against the
ex-President, N20 billion for the damage suffered as a
result of the allegation.
The plaintiff told the court that the former president
specifically referred to him in the said letter as a fugitive
wanted in the United States.
However, in his statement of defence, Obasanjo stood his
ground, saying he had no reason to retract the words in the
said letter as requested by Kashamu.

”The   statement/words are correct, true and justified”, he
maintained, adding, “The plaintiff has no iota of good
reputation locally and internationally.
Kashamu Buruji

“Aside the plaintiff’s illicit drug business for which he was
indicted and wanted in America, the plaintiff has penchant
for taking loans from unsuspecting banks/financial
institutions with intention to permanently elude/avoid
repayment or liquidation of such loans.
”Further to that, the plaintiff has been judicially adjudged/
confirmed a debtor by a competent court of law in Cotonou,
Republic of Benin. And the plaintiff presently occupies a
choice position on the Assets Management Corporation of
Nigeria’s list of notorious bad debtor.”