Gov Otti seeks N100bn damages over alleged defamatory posts

Abia Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has demanded a written retraction, public apology, and the sum of N100bn as compensation from Hon. Barr. Eze Chikamnayo, also known as Iyierioba Chikamnayo, over a series of ‘defamatory and malicious’ publications he made against him on Facebook.

In a letter dated October 2, 2025, and signed by his counsel, Dr. Sonny Ajala, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Otti accused Chikamnayo of persistently making “unjustified demonic online defamatory posts” against him on his Facebook account titled “Iyierioba Chikamnayo.”

The publications, which include posts captioned “Alex Otthief is a confirmed criminal and disaster!” posted on September 22, 2025, and “Fighting Promax!!!!” on September 21, 2025.

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Others, such as “Old or new Abia?” shared on September 14, 2025, “Sabbath Message” on September 13, 2025, and “Alex Otthief is a confirmed criminal and congenital liar = looting governor!” on August 15, 2025, were cited as examples of libelous attacks against the governor.

Ajala of Deeplaw Associates said, “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 SAN affirmed that Otti’s integrity has remained sterling over the years, citing his “distinguished career” in the banking sector, where he rose to become Managing Director/Chief Executive of Diamond Bank Plc before venturing into politics.

The letter recounted how Otti was confronted with the post on September 29, 2025, while in Abuja attending the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria on Abia State’s Attorney-General.

Ajala said Otti’s attention was called to Chikamnayo’s Facebook wall, where he found “a cocktail of disparaging publications calculated to instigate public hatred against him.”

Ajala, in the letter, stressed that his client “unequivocally denies in their entirety your malicious defamatory materials published online,” adding that “he (Otti) has no criminal indictment whatsoever or conviction by any court of law and thus declares unequivocally that the content of your online publications generally and specifically… as blatant falsehood.”

The SAN further argued that Chikamnayo’s actions amounted to “unquantifiable mental torture, depression, denigration, brutal destruction of his reputation built over the decades” and “utterly disfigured and diminished our client’s standing in the eyes and estimation of right-thinking persons.”

Governor Otti’s demands include a written retraction of all defamatory posts to be published on the same Facebook wall as well as in four national dailies, namely ThisDay, Punch, The Nation, and National Ambassador Newspapers.

It also requested a written apology to be published on the same Facebook wall, compensation of N100bn for reputational damage, and an undertaking to cease from any further defamatory publications.

Ajala warned: “Take very careful notice that should you fail, refuse, and/or ignore to comply with our demands as contained herein within seven (7) days from the delivery of this letter… we shall without further recourse to you seek legal redress for the appropriate remedy against you for your malicious online libelous publication against our client graphically recounted herein.”