N100bn Defamation Suit: Court Bars Ex-Abia Commissioner From Posting Against Otti

A Federal Capital Territory High Court has granted an interlocutory injunction restraining a former Abia State Commissioner of Information, Barr. Eze Chikamnayo, from publishing defamatory content against Governor Alex Chioma Otti pending the determination of a N100bn defamation suit filed by the governor.

Justice J.E. Obanor, in a ruling delivered on Thursday, ordered Chikamnayo to cease “writing, authoring, sharing, circulating, broadcasting, voicing, forwarding and/or syndicating the writing and publication of contents defamatory of the Claimant on the Defendant’s Facebook wall ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo’ and/or any other social/digital media platform such as X, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Tiktok, including the traditional media to wit: the newspaper houses, the radio and television pending the determination of the substantive suit that gave rise to this application.”

The judge stated in the order that “Having carefully considered the application and all the processes before the Court, and there being no process challenging same, I am satisfied as to the need to grant the interlocutory order sought. Motion No. M/15807/2025 is hereby granted, and the orders are accordingly made as prayed, pending the determination of the substantive suit.”

The court subsequently adjourned to January 19, 2026 for hearing.

The court’s decision follows a motion on notice filed by Governor Otti’s legal team led by Dr. Sonny Ajala, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, which accused Chikamnayo of continuing to publish offensive materials against the governor despite being served with court papers on October 17, 2025.

According to court documents seen by THE WHISTLER, Chikamnayo allegedly published a series of defamatory posts on his Facebook page ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo’ between October 17 and October 31, 2025, after being served with the originating processes in the suit.

The posts included statements such as “Alex Otthief Will Lose by 2027 and Abia State will remain peaceful,” “Alex Otthief is a confirmed bully. He is obviously jittery!!!!” and “Otthief is a thief.”

In an affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Ifeanyi Michael Agbo, the practice manager at Deeplaw Associates, the governor’s legal team stated: “The Defendant/Respondent who is a legal practitioner and very knowledgeable of the duty imposed by law when a lawsuit is pending has remained defiant in sustaining annoying and offensive materials and calling the Claimant/Applicant thief in offensive materials published on the Defendant/Respondent’s Facebook Wall.”

The affidavit further stated: “The Defendant/Respondent has ferociously sustained his harassment and castigation of the Claimant/Applicant as a thief and fraud with the objective to cause the Claimant/Applicant maximum reputational damage and instigate mob uprising against Claimant/Applicant by the people of Abia State the pending lawsuit to the knowledge of the Defendant/Respondent.”

In a written address accompanying the motion, Governor Otti’s counsel argued that Chikamnayo’s continued publications violated the doctrine of sub judice, which forbids any act, statement, or publication capable of prejudicing or influencing the outcome of a matter pending before a court.

The address cited posts made on October 29, 2025, in which Chikmanayo wrote: “You cannot use frivolous litigation as a means of evading the truth and accountability” and “Suing or intimidating opposition will not stop the takeover.”

Dr. Ajala further submitted that “The affront and effrontery of the Defendant/Respondent who is a legal practitioner is unparalleled, unacceptable and deserving of the remonstration by this Temple of Justice.”

The written address contended that Chikamnayo’s actions violated Rule 30 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2023, which stipulates that “A lawyer is an officer of the court and, accordingly, he shall not do any act or conduct himself in any manner that may obstruct, delay or adversely affect the administration of justice.”

The substantive suit, filed on October 8, 2025, at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, followed an earlier demand letter dated October 2, 2025, in which Ajala had requested that Chikamnayo retract his offensive publications.

But the former commissioner failed to comply with the seven-day ultimatum given in the letter.

In the demand letter, Ajala had stated: “Our client for the avoidance of doubt is the only Governor and Chief Executive of a State within the 36 States of Nigeria who bears the name Alex Chioma Otti, thus no effort is required by members of the public to link all your spiteful, false and defamatory attacks to our client either by direct name calling or by other variant of the name Alex Chioma Otti by way of caricature, pun, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia and/or metonymy.”

The lawsuit referenced several Facebook posts published by Chikamnayo between July and September 2025, including posts captioned “Alex Otthief is a confirmed criminal and disaster” on September 22, 2025, “fighting promax” on September 21, 2025, “old or new Abia?” on September 14, 2025, “Alex Otthief is A confirmed criminal and congenital Liar=Looting Governor” on August 15, 2025, and “Government of Alex Otthief for Zignature Bank=Ruin Abia” on July 21, 2025.

In the substantive suit, Governor Otti is seeking a declaration that his “reputation, respect, goodwill and standing as a person, husband, father and a political leader has been grossly injured and the Claimant has suffered grave damage owing to the Defendant’s persistent false and malicious online publications of contents defamatory of the Claimant on the Defendant’s Facebook Wall titled; ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo with 6.4K (six thousand, four hundred) followers.”

The governor is also demanding damages of N100bn for “the loss of reputation, psychological and emotional trauma suffered by the Claimant owing to the falsehood and malicious online publications of contents defamatory of the Claimant.”

Additionally, Otti is seeking an order directing Chikmanayo to tender an unreserved apology for “each of the cocktail of the malicious online publications” to be published on the defendant’s Facebook wall and in Thisday Newspaper, the National Ambassador Newspaper, the Punch Newspaper and the Nation Newspaper.

The suit also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining Chikamnayo from publishing defamatory content against the governor on any social media or traditional media platform, as well as N250m as cost of prosecuting the suit.

On October 16, 2025, Justice Obanor had granted Governor Otti leave to serve court processes on Chikamnayo through substituted service via his Facebook wall ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo’ and his phone and WhatsApp number (withheld), after Otti’s team argued that those were the means through which the demand letter had been delivered to the defendant.

According to the fresh “affidavit of extreme urgency” filed alongside the motion for interlocutory injunction, the governor’s legal team warned: “Except the Defendant/Respondent is restrained from making further publications against the Claimant/Applicant, the Claimant/Applicant will suffer irreparable reputational damage and mob uprising/attack from the people of Abia State before the pending lawsuit is adjudicated on merit.”

The written address in support of the motion cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Ideozu vs. Ochoma (2006), which held that “Interlocutory injunction second in the line of injunctive reliefs is aimed at attacking or tackling a threatening, continuing or living adverse act or conduct on the part of the owner of the act or conduct.”

Chikamnayo, who is described in court documents as “an internet citizen (netcitizen) who applies his trade including the offensive publications that gave rise to this suit online/digitally with global audience,” was ordered to enter an appearance within thirty days of being served the writ or risk judgment being delivered in his absence.

Otti’s lawyers had stated that Chikamnayo’s posts resulted to “unquantifiable mental torture, depression, denigration, brutal destruction of his (Otti’s) reputation built over the decades” and “utterly disfigured and diminished our client’s standing in the eyes and estimation of right-thinking persons.”