Ex-Ambassador Drags Onyeama To US Court

A former Nigerian Ambassador to Namibia, Lilian Onoh, has dragged the immediate past foreign affairs minister Geoffrey Onyeama before a US District Court for the Northern District of Texas

The plaintiff in the suit is alleging libel. Also joined in the case is Gabriel Aduda who was a Permanent Secretary at the ministry.

Mr Aduda now serves as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja.

The suit filed by Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton on 22 December, listed an online platform, Sahara Reporters and its publisher Omoyele Sowore as defendants.

The case has been assigned to Judge Jane J. Boyle for adjudication but no date has been fixed for hearing.

In the court documents, the claimant accused Onyeama and Aduda of using Sahara Reporters, a New York-based online newspaper to defame her.

In the suit before the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton, said Sahara Reporters in April, published an article saying Ms Onoh was sacked by the Nigerian government on account of misappropriation of N50 million.

Mr Thornton noted that the media outlet published Ms Onoh’s photograph in the story, to ensure the object of the story was not mistaken.

In court papers, the claimant’s lawyer decried Sahara Reporters’ portrayal of his client as being corrupt having informed its global audience of diversion of funds meant for the running of Nigeria’s High Commission in Namibia.