The 2023 presidential aspirant on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Dumebi Kachikwu has described allegations of house demolition being peddled against him in the media by one, Mr Obinna Ararume as spurious and an unmitigated lies.
The founder of Roots Television was reacting at the backdrop of allegations of demolishing part of Obinna Ararume’s house in Asokoro, wondered what a supposedly grown man would gain by going to the media with utter falsehood when he is well aware of the facts on ground.
Kachikwu said, he, ordinarily would not have deemed it necessary to respond to the blackmail and defamatory publications both on television and online media, but just to state the facts as they are and prevent unsuspecting and right-thinking members of the public from being fed with lies painting him in a bad light as has already been done.
According to Kachikwu, the issue started about six years ago when Obinna Ararume and some other developers annexed parts of his property totaling about 1,500sqm and prevented him from utilizing his legally acquired land for development as intended.
Obinna Ararume on his part, had illegally annexed a part of the land measuring about 300sqm where he built a boys’ quarters, a swimming pool and a fence – a piece of land he referred to as “just two meters” in his blackmail interview with the media.
However, after several notices to quit were duly served on Obinna Ararume and others who had encroached on the land illegally, they all promised to remove the encumbrances they had caused to be erected on the land and indeed others removed theirs and reverted to the legal and statutory boundaries between their properties with the exception of Obinna Ararume who initially refused to peacefully remove the encumbrances claiming it formed a part of the land of his Father-In-Law (Mr. Theodore Orji – Former Governor of Abia State and now a serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) but later accepted to remove his property on the land after pleading that same be relinquished to him which offer Mr. Kachikwu refused.
For the purpose of clarity, Kachikwu further stated: That for over six years, Obinna Ararume encroached into and annexed about 300sqm of Mr. Kachikwu’s land with a street value of over N400million and denied him the lawful use of the land by building a boys’ quarter, swimming pool and fenced the property.
That all entreaties to get him to remove the encumbrances in order for Mr. Kachikwu to develop the land failed as he initially claimed the said property belongs to his father-in-law and as such the property was theirs and he has armed security personnel who man and secure the property.
That about three years ago, when his swimming pool built on the land started leaking and the water colossally damaged Mr. Kachikwu’s property, Obinna’s attention was drawn to it, he made countless promises to peacefully remove the encumbrances and revert to the legal boundaries they all shared but never did.
After the boundary lines was formally re-established by the FCT authorities he was duly informed that Mr. Kachikwu’s engineers were going to commence work on the new boundary line which would mean removing the structures on it, and he promised to relocate his valuables from the annexed land.
That on Wednesday last week, Mr. Kachikwu’s engineers went to the site to begin work after Obinna Ararume and Mr. Kachikwu had communicated on WhatsApp where he promised to remove whatever valuables he had on the land. And in the said chats he did informed Mr. Kachikwu that he has removed his valuables thereby giving Mr. Kachikwu’s engineers the go ahead to commence removal of encumbrances from the land. The engineers thereafter went to the site with his knowledge and consent and commenced work to reclaim the property as re-established by the authorities.
Surprisingly, when the engineers returned to site on Saturday to continue their work, Obinna Ararume asked his armed security details to stop and chase them from doing their work. He thereafter invited the media to the site where he granted them interview with fabricated stories.
The record of the communications between Obinna Ararume and Kachikwu conclusively prove that Obinna Ararume is a liar and further establishes that not only did he acknowledge the said encroachment, he first pleaded that the land be ceded to him, citing the long-standing friendly relationship between the Ararume’s and Kachikwu’s families and then later accepted that the removal of the encumbrances be done after his plea failed.
That in the chats, he claimed that his family and Kachikwu’s family have had close ties for over 30 years which then destroys his claim that Kachikwu introduced himself to him
as a Presidential Aspirant.
By reason of the interview he granted, Mr. Kachikwu has been maligned and his character and reputation seriously damaged as he has not rested from calls from far and wide requesting for his response to the malicious story especially the publication by Africa Independent Television (AIT) who was amongst the television stations that visited Mr. Kachikwu to interview him after being invited by Mr. Obinna Ararume to the site where he said several lies against his person.
This press release hereby serves as a notice to Obinna Ararume to offer an unreserved apology to Mr. Kachikwu to be published in the several media outlets he employed to propagate his malicious imputations and lies against his person in which he referred to Mr. Kachikwu that he is in the habit of using security agents to intimidate and beat up Nigerians.
Mr. Kachikwu’s Media Office hereby state categorically that, failure on the part of Obinna Ararume to tender the said apology within the next 24 hours of this release, it will be left with no other option than to seek legal redress in a court of competent jurisdiction with the attendant consequences.
