A renowned legal luminary, Akeem Louis Aponmade, has warned against the persistent rumour mill created around the Juju Music Maestro, Chief Commander Ebenzer Obey, that the living legend is dead and especially the creation of content by some unscrupulous fellows as a make-belief to support their false narratives.
Aponmade, who claimed that his client is not only alive but doing well in his own spheres of life, detested why anyone should be comfortable creating a grim scenario of death for another person just for the purpose of money-making.
The lawyer warned that the law would catch up with such people and that they would be fished out if they did not desist from their dastardly acts.
Below is the statement in full:
“Our law firm recently became aware of audio-visual content posted on the premier video sharing platform, YouTube, where our client, Evan. (Prof.) Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi (MFR, KCW) was reported to have passed on. The said video has generally been seen as believable as it showed a funeral party replete with an artificially generated male voice-over reporting the purported death of our client.
“Our client has since issued a statement to deny the report, which shows clearly that the content was fabricated in its entirety. Some person(s) would conceive such a dastardly plot to report that another human being is dead when the subject is alive is an unconscionable act beyond description.
“We strongly vilipend a situation where some person(s) will sit in the comfort of their homes or offices and conjure up a story that our client is dead when he is alive, all for the sake of content creation. They do this without care for the emotional distress and psychological trauma that publishing such falsehoods has brought on his person, family, friends, and staff while making a lot of money from their evil conduct.
“We have observed that this is becoming a pattern of a campaign of calumny against our client as not long ago this year, a false alarm of his death was similarly reported on social media platforms.
“We believe that the creators and purveyors of Chief Commander Obey’s false death report know quite well that they are engaging in an illegal act for which they can be held accountable. First, their conduct constitutes an offence under the Cybercrimes Act 2015 (as amended). Secondly, they have defamed our client and injured him in his profession, he being an active performing artist and Minister of the gospel.
“We have taken steps on behalf of our client in line with YouTube’s dispute protocol, which has since led to the offensive audio-visual material being geo-blocked and taken down pending further action. We wish to warn those individuals behind these false reports against taking advantage of the peaceful nature of our client in his roles as a religious leader and Minister of the gospel to cause him harm.
“These evil persons should be made aware that they cannot hide under the façade of virtual anonymity to perpetrate criminal and tortious acts against Chief Commander Obey as we have the capacity to unmask them. Using all legal means available under the Nigerian legal system, including rules of public international law.
“Any future occurrence of false reporting of our client’s passing will be met with strong and definite action to bring the perpetrator(s) to face the full consequences of their unlawful actions.
We believe that a word is enough for the wise.
