Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo and his wife, Dr. Nonye Soludo, have dismissed as “another fabrication” the apology reportedly credited to Senator Uche Ekwunife over her defamatory remarks against them.
Ekwunife, deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the forthcoming Anambra gubernatorial election, had accused Soludo’s wife of infidelity.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Wednesday and signed by his Senior Special Assistant on New Media, Mazi Ejimofor Opara, the governor said the apology did not emanate from the lawmaker and therefore lacked credibility.
The statement titled ‘Sen. Ekwunife’s Purported Apology: Another Fabrication Fit for the Waste Bin’, argued that the unsigned apology, said to have come from the “Ekwunife Campaign Organization” was suspicious, misleading, and inadequate.
According to Opara, there is no such campaign body since Ekwunife’s gubernatorial ticket was a joint one with the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State.
“The publication purporting to be an apology for the defamatory statements made against the Governor and his wife personally by Senator Ekwunife does not appear to have emanated from the Senator herself, given that her defamatory statements were made directly via recorded video and leaked audio conversation,” the statement said.
The governor’s aide insisted that any retraction or apology must come directly from Ekwunife, using the same channels through which the offensive remarks were made.
“The so-called apology never referenced Madam Ekwunife’s initial video and audio but instead focused on an unsigned article. This only points to her complicity, directly or indirectly, as the source of the article. It implies that no genuine apology was intended or tendered,” Opara stated.
The governor’s office also recalled that the First Lady, Dr. Nonye Soludo, had earlier challenged Ekwunife to clear herself on two issues: first, to swear an oath before the Blessed Sacrament affirming fidelity to her marriage; and second, to subject her children to a DNA test, alongside the Soludos’ own children, to disprove the infidelity allegations.
“Any contrite apology must follow a personal and direct retraction of her defamatory statements,” Opara emphasized, adding, “Slander or libel directly made by an individual cannot be vicariously dismissed by any agent or proxy.”
Describing the apology as “another unsubstantiated social media gossip,” the Soludo administration said it would proceed as though the document never existed, while still demanding a clear and unambiguous retraction from Ekwunife herself.
