Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, has filed a ₦1.5 billion defamation suit against Nigerian human rights activist, Mr. Deji Adeyanju.
The suit, filed at the High Court of Anambra State, Onitsha Judicial Division, lists Obi as the plaintiff and Adeyanju as the defendant. The former governor is seeking ₦500 million in aggravated damages and ₦1 billion in general damages over a series of allegedly false and malicious statements made by Adeyanju on his social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
In the court documents, Obi claimed that Adeyanju’s posts across these platforms were “false, baseless, malicious, scandalous, and defamatory.” He alleged that the activist’s remarks, which described him as a “religious bigot,” “fraud,” “political prostitute,” and “leader of a mob,” had severely tarnished his public image and integrity both within Nigeria and internationally.
The former governor is asking the court to declare Adeyanju’s publications defamatory and to order him to publish a comprehensive apology on his social media pages and in at least three national dailies. He is also urging the court to compel Adeyanju to delete all related posts and to permanently restrain him from making further defamatory remarks.
According to the suit, Obi’s claims in part of the document against the defendant include:
“A DECLARATION that all allegations made and published by the Defendant concerning the Plaintiff on the Defendant’s various social media platforms, including, without limitation, his ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) handle @adeyanjudeji and his verified Facebook account ‘Adeyanju Deji’, Instagram account ‘AdeyanjuDeji’ are false, baseless, unfounded, malicious, reckless, scandalous, and defamatory of the Plaintiff.”
“AN ORDER compelling the Defendant to immediately retract and delete from all his social media platforms, including but not limited to his ‘X’ handle @adeyanjudeji, his verified Facebook account ‘Adeyanju Deji,’ Instagram account @AdeyanjuDeji and any other online platforms or sites, all false and malicious publications describing the Plaintiff with derogatory labels (including ‘leader of a mob,’ ‘religious bigot,’ ‘fraud,’ ‘scum,’ ‘political fraud,’ ‘political prostitute’), allegations of financial misconduct, dishonesty, or abuse of office, which have harmed the Plaintiff’s personal, political, and professional reputation.”
“AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Defendant, whether by himself, his servants, agents, privies, representatives, assigns or through any media or online platform whatsoever, from publishing, broadcasting or causing to be published or broadcast any defamatory words or materials against the Plaintiff.”
“AGGRAVATED AND/OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES in the sum of N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira) against the Defendant for his reckless, malicious and persistent course of conduct in publishing and republishing the defamatory words complained of, calculated to disparage and ridicule the Plaintiff before the Nigerian public, polity and international community.”
“GENERAL DAMAGES in the sum of N1,000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira) against the Defendant, being compensation for the harm, ridicule, odium, emotional distress, and reputational injury suffered by the Plaintiff as a result of the Defendant’s defamatory publications.”
