By Segun Agbaje
If vile, unconscionable blackmail required an avatar, Christopher Onyeka Palmer would be a perfect fit. Desperate, despicable, and dangerous, he fabricates and conjures up malicious articles and social media posts intended to extort money from his victims with ruthless ease.
Interestingly, if there was a list of countries where the business of fake news and blatant falsehood has been thriving unabated, Nigeria surely tops the list; and Christopher Onyeka Palmer, the young dude behind Palmeron, occupies the topmost seat.
Palmer thrives on wiles, and nothing more. His business of assailing prominent Nigerians’ character to extort money is fast assuming gross notoriety, as he banks on the mental laziness of his audience to spread his conspicuous bias.
Knowing that most people who consume his fake reports hardly fact-check him, he is getting bolder as the days go by while he smiles to the bank from time to time after fleecing his victims of their hard-earned money. And in cases where there are events to report, not only does he exaggerate them; he paints them in staggering colours of lies to appeal to his unsuspecting readers.
Disguised as a fighter of corruption, Palmer himself epitomises the much-touted rot in the oil and gas sector, especially as related to Nigeria. His modus operandi is simple: he fabricates blatant falsehood, publishes it on some blogs, then finds a way to get in touch with his target to demand a bribe in order to find a common ground. Where and when his target denies him access, he goes on social media to propagate his falsehood to the social media mob, who takes turns to feast on his lies.
Alas, there are no boundaries he cannot cross once he sees a tiny window to strike. From successful public officers to private business moguls who cherish their privacy, Palmer pounces on them with ferocious bestiality. As with all such heinous characters, Palmer has met his waterloo as one of his grand schemes to blackmail a frontline oil and gas firm has backfired. He is now the subject of a multi-billion naira litigation.
This medium has exclusively obtained a cease and desist letter issued by Pinheiro LP on behalf of Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited and her sister company, Still Earth Limited. But it wasn’t only these companies he targeted, he ensured to drag companies with formidable track record in the oil and gas industry like Eroton Exploration and Production Company and Aiteo Group into his latest devious plot.
Palmer’s offense this time was a letter he authored dated 26/09/2022 and addressed to the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited with the caption – Updated Petition on the Irregularity and Abuse of Procurement Process in the award of contract for the Provision of Drillship for TOTAL E & P OML 130 Drilling Campaign Tender No: DW00001997. Typical of his Modus Operandi, the letter was deliberately leaked by Palmer and is making the rounds on social media platforms.
Palmer had falsely and maliciously published defamatory words concerning Tirex, claiming among others that: “Instead of awarding the contract to his company after an intentionally prolonged negotiation, decided to arrange an urgent top-level meeting to discuss awarding the contract to TIREX/PIDWAL/NOBLE consortium, a decision that resulted from an irregular and falsified commercial re-evaluation. We immediately sent a letter to you Sir (GMD) about the illegality of the process.”
He went on to allege that his company had been bullied, intimidated, and frustrated by NAPIMS & TotalEnergies. After his concoction of lies against the national institutions, Palmer issued a subtle threat; “Any attempt not to award the contract to PALMERON shall be an obvious case of discrimination and clearly unlawful. The action of the individuals involved in this abuse of tender process can be seen in different perception, their behaviour may appear justified by their personal interest against national interest, but we posit that from all indications, their intention remains a malicious and unauthorized action carried out for the selfish benefit of one person or company to the detriment of PALMERON.”
But Palmer, at his vacuous and vindictive best, did not stop at that. He further sponsored and clandestinely coordinated and circulated an e-mail dated 14/08/2022 purported to have been authored by a faceless Association of Concerned Citizens, which also recklessly and maliciously defamed the companies.
This medium’s investigations show that as with everything with him, Palmer is falsehood personified. The office address he claims has no such business concern there. Unlike other entities and individuals that bore the brutal predilection of Palmer without fighting back, Tirex Petroleum has made attempts at a redress as the calculated attempts to injure their businesses have made members of the business public reluctant to deal with them.
The company has, therefore, instructed its lawyers to formally demand that Palmer, within seven days of receipt of the letter, cause to be published to the same recipients of his letter and email under reference and using the same social media platforms a full and unequivocal public retraction and apology in terms to be approved by the firm.
Failure to receive a satisfactory reply from Palmer within the timelines, the law firm has been instructed to commence legal proceedings without further recourse to him for the following claims: Damages, including exemplary damages, in the sum of N5billion for libel contained in his defamatory publications; Injunction against him restraining further or similar publications; and an order for a retraction of the defamatory words and a public apology in the terms and manners to be stipulated by the law firm and published in at least three National Dailies.
Indeed, the end might be nearer for Palmer’s litany of atrocities than he ever thought.
