A High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has ordered a social media critic, Mr Chika Nwoba, to pay N5 million as damages to a legal practitioner, Ugadu Chinedu, over alleged defamation.
Nwoba was accused by the plaintiff in a suit marked HAB/75/2024 of posting some defamatory materials against him on his Facebook page in 2024 and 2025.
After considering all exhibits and evidences before the court, Justice Franklin Edem found Chika Nwoba guilty of
defaming Ugadu and ordered as follows: “That a declaration is hereby made that exhibits P1, P5, P9, P10 and P11 hereto which were publications made by the Defendant on 15/6/2024,18/9/2024, 18/2/2025 and 17/7/2025 on his Facebook page against the plaintiff are defamatory.
“That for his acts of publication of the defamatory matters as aforementioned, the defendant shall pay to the plaintiff the sum of (N5,000,000.00) five million naira only as general and aggravated damages.
“That an order of perpetual injunction is hereby made restraining the defendant and his agents, servants or privies from making any further defamatory publication in any media platform against the plaintiff.
“That the defendant is hereby ordered to within 30 days from the date of this judgement to make a retraction of the aforementioned defamatory publication by publishing such retraction on his Facebook page consistently for seven days. Such retraction shall be accompanied with an apology made by the defendant to the plaintiff.”
