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Romanus Okoye
The Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the Deputy President of the Senate, Yomi Odunuga yesterday, explained that the Deputy Senate President (DSP), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was not convicted of any crime in the United States. He said that accusing him of perjury for not disclosing a nonexistent criminal record was mischievous.
Odunuga stated that Omo-Agege, yes faced a criminal trial (misdemeanor) in 1996 in California, USA and was unjustly suspended from the Bar by the Professional Ethics Violations Investigations. But he was ultimately acquitted by the court and subsequently restored to the Bar.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun, Odunuga noted that it is defamatory to allege that the Deputy Senate President committed perjury by not disclosing a nonexistent criminal conviction to INEC before the 2015 and 2019 general elections.
According to him, there was no conviction to disclose. He stated: “None, obviously. Furthermore, by Nigerian law, INEC only requires a candidate for an elective office to disclose convictions (if any) that happened 10 years before his/her nomination. So, assuming the DSP’s traducers were even correct about alleged 1996 conviction (which is not the case at all), where is the perjury, given that all events alleged occurred more than 24 years ago?”
He stated that the whole truth is that there was no subsisting conviction against Omo-Agege. “All contrary publications and public comments only sit at the highest height of defamation and this portends huge legal consequences for all who are involved as sponsors, actors and enablers,” he stated.
