{"id":50884,"date":"2024-10-04T14:19:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T14:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=50884"},"modified":"2024-10-04T14:19:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T14:19:18","slug":"defamation-abuja-based-lawyer-demands-n1bn-damages-from-ex-nhrc-chief-odinkalu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/10\/04\/defamation-abuja-based-lawyer-demands-n1bn-damages-from-ex-nhrc-chief-odinkalu\/","title":{"rendered":"Defamation: Abuja-based Lawyer Demands N1bn Damages from ex-NHRC Chief, Odinkalu"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Abuja-based lawyer, Nkem Okoro, Esq., has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to law professor and social critic, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, demanding a retraction and public apology for an alleged defamatory publication. Okoro, in his statement, also requested the sum of N1 billion in damages and a public apology to be published in three national newspapers\u2014The Punch, The Nation, <\/em>and The Guardian<\/em>\u2014within 24 hours or face legal action.<\/p>\n

This demand follows a publication made by Professor Odinkalu, a former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),\u00a0 on October 3, 2024, in which Odinkalu criticized Okoro. The conflict stems from Okoro’s previous cautioning of Odinkalu on August 13, regarding the latter\u2019s criticism of Justice Sylvanus Oriji of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court. Justice Oriji had issued a ruling restricting the movement of the organizers of the #EndBadGovernance Protest to the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, a decision that sparked debate.<\/p>\n

In his letter dated October 3, Okoro expressed disbelief that Odinkalu would accuse him of violating the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) protocols without acknowledging that the case is currently under appeal before the Supreme Court. Okoro emphasized that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had previously dismissed the petitions against him, citing wrongful direction by the LPDC in a case related to double representation in a legal brief he handled for a visually impaired client.<\/p>\n

The background of the controversy lies in earlier comments made by Odinkalu, who insinuated that Justice Oriji’s decision to restrict the protest\u2019s movement was influenced by his shared local government affiliation with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, both hailing from Obio Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State.<\/p>\n

Odinkalu later posted on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, in an article published by an online magazine, alleging that Okoro had been indicted by the LPDC for a professional “breach.” Odinkalu wrote:
\n“Last August, one Okoro was everywhere threatening #FireAndBrimstone about my views on what was a manifest abuse of judicial power by @fcthighcourt. It turns out Nkem Okoro has a previous record of infractions in such matters with the #LPDC @Nigerialawyers; @Lawandsocietym please note.”<\/p>\n

Okoro, in response, vehemently denied the accusations. He clarified that the LPDC\u2019s decision, in which he was instructed to issue an apology, is currently the subject of an appeal before the Supreme Court (Appeal No: SC\/CV\/857\/2021). Okoro also stated that Odinkalu failed to mention that the Nigerian Bar Association had investigated the matter and dismissed it as lacking merit.<\/p>\n

In his rebuttal to Odinkalu, Okoro expressed his shock and dismay at what he described as a “vindictive” attempt to tarnish his reputation. He accused Odinkalu of misrepresenting the facts to the public in retaliation for Okoro’s earlier stern warning, which asked Odinkalu to refrain from making derogatory statements about the judiciary.<\/p>\n

“It is, therefore, shocking, sir, that you could descend this low in your vindictive attempt, consequent upon my earlier stern warning to you, to stop your derogatory and disrespectful publications against the nation\u2019s judiciary, by attempting to malign my person through false publications,” Okoro stated in his letter.<\/p>\n

He further added, “By your false and malicious publication, you misrepresented to the general reading public that I was indicted by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee over a matter still pending before the Supreme Court, without also bringing to their attention that the NBA had investigated the same issue and found it meritless. You distorted the facts simply to malign my person in vengeance of my earlier warning.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Abuja-based lawyer, Nkem Okoro, Esq., has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to law professor and social critic, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, demanding a retraction and public apology for an alleged defamatory publication. Okoro, in his statement, also requested the sum of N1 billion in damages and a public apology to be published in three national newspapers\u2014The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50886,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884\/revisions\/50886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}