Defamation: Court orders social media critic to pay legal practitioner N5m damages

A High Court sitting successful Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has ordered a societal media critic, Mr Chika Nwoba, to wage N5 cardinal arsenic damages to a ineligible practitioner, Ugadu Chinedu, implicit alleged defamation.

Nwoba was accused by the plaintiff successful a suit marked HAB/75/2024 of posting immoderate defamatory materials against him connected his Facebook leafage successful 2024 and 2025.

After considering each exhibits and evidences earlier the court, Justice Franklin Edem recovered Chika Nwoba blameworthy of
defaming Ugadu and ordered arsenic follows: “That a declaration is hereby made that exhibits P1, P5, P9, P10 and P11 hereto which were publications made by the Defendant connected 15/6/2024,18/9/2024, 18/2/2025 and 17/7/2025 connected his Facebook leafage against the plaintiff are defamatory.

“That for his acts of work of the defamatory matters arsenic aforementioned, the suspect shall wage to the plaintiff the sum of (N5,000,000.00) 5 cardinal naira lone arsenic wide and aggravated damages.

“That an bid of perpetual injunction is hereby made restraining the suspect and his agents, servants oregon privies from making immoderate further defamatory work successful immoderate media level against the plaintiff.

“That the suspect is hereby ordered to wrong 30 days from the day of this judgement to marque a retraction of the aforementioned defamatory work by publishing specified retraction connected his Facebook leafage consistently for 7 days. Such ret...