Boko Haram: Ihejirika sues Australian hostage negotiator, demands N100bn

Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, has filed a whopping N100 billion libel suit against Australian hostage negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davies, who allegedly accused him of sponsoring Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East of Nigeria.

In the suit filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja by his team of lawyers, led by Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu (SAN), Ihejirika said he had been exposed to scandal, odium, ridicule, humiliation and his character, credit and reputation brought into disrepute, both in Nigeria and abroad as a result of Davis’ statement.

Already, his lawyers have approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve Davis, who lives in Perth, Australia, with the court processes, after the court granted their application for an order to serve the processes abroad.

Australia and Nigeria are members of the Commonwealth and a special procedure applies when serving court processes on a defendant residing in a country that is a member of the body other than the country where the writ is issued.

Apart from the N100 billion damages, Ihejirika is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining Davis and his agents from further making defamatory comments about him.

He also seeks “an order for the defendant to publish forthwith a full and unqualified retraction and apology conspicuously in the front page of THISDAY newspaper to assuage the plaintiff for the said false malicious and libelous publication.”

Ihejirika said he retired meritoriously from the military after a successful career and that he served the army without blemish.

He said: “On or about the 28th day of August 2014, the defendant granted a multimedia and television interview broadcast to AriseTv which aired in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, and subsequently published by numerous newspapers and media houses; wherein the defendant when asked during the Arise news segment of the interview to name the sponsors of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, falsely and maliciously spoke of the plaintiff in the following words, to wit: ‘There is the former Chief of Army Staff, retired January, or actually sacked by the president, he is another sponsor. I could give you the names if you like but I have no fear that these were very confident and it is in fact Boko Haram senior commanders who have been naming them’.”

He said the spoken words and publication in their ordinary meaning were ‎understood by reasonable members of the society who listened or watched the Arise news broadcast in Abuja to mean that he sponsored Boko Haram to wage war, insurrection or insurgency against Nigeria.

He also said the publication implied that he did not retire but was sacked by the president and that he had committed treason or treasonable felony.

Ihejirika said the public who listened to the broadcast believed that he had conducted himself in a manner tantamount to breach of his oath of allegiance and service as a soldier and senior officer in the Nigerian Army.

In an affidavit he deposed to, Ihejirika said he had suffered grievous wrong and had been exposed to scandal, odium, ridicule, humiliation and that his character, credit and reputation had been brought into disrepute, both in Nigeria and abroad.