Senator Chris Anyanwu has filed a suit against the former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, at the FCT High Court over alleged defamation.
The suit filed on March 14, 2025, has Vintage Press Limited, owner of The Nation newspapers, as the second defendant.
According to the court filings made available to newsmen on Thursday, Anyanwu (the claimant) averred that on the 2nd day of December, 2024, she launched her memoir, which was published in a book titled “Bold Leap” and that in an interview with The Nation newspaper on the 12th day of January, 2025, the 1st Defendant while responding to questions and in reaction to the content of the claimant’s book, uttered the words deemed defamatory concerning the Claimant, which were published by the defendants on The Nation newspaper website.
Anyanwu averred that her attention was drawn to the said published interview and she was taken aback, shocked and embarrassed when she read the content of the interview which prompted her to issue a press statement titled, “I Dare Ohakim to Produce the Letter to Abacha” denying the falsehoods which were published by the defendants.
The claimant also averred that the 1st defendant in response to her press statement issued and caused to be published a press release dated the 24th day of January, 2025 which contained further falsehood concerning her.
Anyanwu stated that through the first defendant’s statements, she has been exposed to ridicule, contempt and public odium resulting to severe damage to her reputation, dignity, social standing and also in her professional, political and personal relationships with friends and associates.
She said she has equally suffered psychological, emotional and material damage.
The former lawmaker noted that on January 28, 2025, she wrote to Ohakim through her solicitors imploring him to retract the false and damaging statements concerning her, but he has declined to retract the false statements till date, further sustaining the damage already done to her reputation without any remorse.
The claimant is therefore asking the court to make “a declaration that the words uttered by the 1st defendant concerning the claimant in The Nation newspaper interview granted by the 1st defendant which was published and/or caused to be published by the 1st and 2nd defendants in The Nation newspaper website on January 12, 2025 are defamatory of the claimant.
“A declaration that the words uttered, published and/or caused to be published by the 1st defendant concerning the claimant in the press release dated January 24, 2025 and titled ‘Re: Bold Leap: Chris Anyanwu’s false narrative and letter of apology to Gen. Abacha’ and published by the Sun newspaper, Daily Post newspaper, The Niche News Blog, The Naija News Blog are defamatory of the claimant.
“An order of this honorable court compelling the 1st defendant to retract the defamatory statements concerning the claimant contained in the published press release dated January 24, 2025 and titled ‘Re: Bold Leap: Chris Anyanwu’s false narrative and letter of apology to Gen. Abacha,’ and to publish an apology to the claimant in a full page of Sun newspaper and Nation newspaper circulating in Nigeria.”
The claimant is also asking the court to grant her N250 million in damages against the defendants for the damage done to her reputation by the publication of the said defamatory statements. She is also asking for damages of N250 million against Ohakim for “defamatory statements contained in the press release dated January 24, 2025 and titled ‘Re: Bold Leap: Chris Anyanwu’s false narrative and letter of apology to Gen. Abacha.’”
Also, she wants the court to grant the cost of the action in the sum of N50 million against the defendants.
