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| Prof Odita SAN |
In his reaction to the alleged story by the Sahara reporter he said "I refer to the above captioned publication of Monday, 20 May 2019. captioned “QUEEN’S COUNSEL, FIDELIS ODITAH, BENEFICIARY OF $1.3 BILLION MALABU OIL DEAL, TESTIFIES IN MILAN” which were designed to smear and malign me and to give the totally false impression that I am a beneficiary of the controversial Malabu payment of US$1.3 billion when you knew that I am not. The headline and publication are a deliberate lie and malicious falsehood designed to paint me as a suspicious character, a man associated with money laundering, and an expert witness who failed to disclose that he has a conflict of interest and should not have given evidence in support of Eni in the Milan criminal proceedings. Your publication made it clear that its grievance is my assertion during my testimony in Milan on 15 May 2019 that the 2011 Resolution Agreements were valid (not the kickbacks which I did not mention) and that the recent challenge was politically motivated under pressure from international NGOs, because the Nigerian government had known about Dan Etete’s alleged involvement with Malabu since 2002. Indeed that was the reason given in Platts’ news release on 22 August 2002 as being the reason for the 2 July 2002 revocation of Malabu’s OPL 245 licence by the Obasanjo government. You knew that I did not benefit in any way from the US$1.3 billion Malabu payment and there is nothing in your publication that could conceivably support the suggestion that I was a beneficiary. You published your story under a sensational caption in order deliberately to damage my good character and unblemished reputation and diminish the impact of the evidence that I gave to the Milan court. Your publication has been republished widely by other online sources. In addition, since your publication, I have been contacted by many people around the world expressing surprise and disappointment that I received a part of the Malabu payment, but to your knowledge, I did not and none of the numerous investigations of the Malabu payment has revealed or suggested any benefit received by me directly or indirectly, knowingly or otherwise, from the US$1.3 billion Malabu payment. Your publication was therefore deliberately and unashamedly a libelous and malicious falsehood aimed solely at damaging my reputation and crippling my legal practice as a Queens Counsel and Senior Advocate of repute and integrity.
