Nigeria’s former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, has instituted a N100bn (about $64m) libel suit against a self-styled Australian hostage negotiator, Stephen Davies, for accusing him of sponsoring the Boko Haram insurgent group.Ihejirika filed the suit before a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja through his team of lawyers Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu, Prof. C.U. Ilegbune, and Ben Anechebe, seeking N100bn (about $64m) as aggravated damages for defamation.
The plaintiff’s lawyers said their client “has suffered grievous wrong and he has been exposed to scandal, odium, ridicule, humiliation and his character, credit and reputation brought into disrepute, both in Nigeria and abroad”.
According to local media reports, the lawyers obtained an order of the court to serve the process on the defendant abroad.
The lawyers also applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable them to serve Davis, who lives in Perth, Australia.
Ihejirika is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining Davis or his agents from further making defamatory comments about him.
He also seeks an order compelling the defendant to publish “a full and unqualified retraction and apology conspicuously in the front page of a newspaper to assuage the plaintiff for the said false, malicious and libelous publication”.