An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mr Johnson Usman, SAN, has asked Rep Ikenga Ugochinyere to retract defamatory statements against him or face immediate legal action.
Mustapha Ibrahim, SAN, Usman made this known through his counsel in a letter to Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
The letter, dated March 14 and received by the lawmaker on the same day, was made available to newsmen on Monday in Abuja.
The legislator was said to have allegedly published the derogatory and defamatory article during a press conference he organised on March 13, which was attended by media houses, including a renowned TV station.
Ugochinyere had addressed the media following a suit filed by Usman at the Federal High Court in Abuja against him on behalf of four leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo.
The plaintiffs are Mr Austine Nwachukwu, Imo PDP Chairman; Mr Thankgod Okeke, PDP LGA Chairman, Ideato North LGA; Mrs Agatha Onyejisi, PDP Ward Chairman of Umuopia/Umukegwu Ward in Ideato North LGA, and Mr Carl Nwokoma, Imo PDP Vice Chairman/Orlu Zonal Chairman.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/385/2025, dated Feb. 26 and filed Feb. 27, the leaders urged the court to order Ugochinyere, expelled from the party, to vacate his seat at the National Assembly.
Reacting, the lawmaker accused Usman of filing the case on behalf of persons not members of the PDP and conducting a kangaroo suspension to ask the court to declare his seat vacant.
He also alleged that the senior lawyer filed the case on behalf of a group loyal to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike to declare his seat vacant with no basis in law.
Ugochinyere, who accused Usman of initially filing the suit before a judge, said the lawyer secretly withdrew the matter and refilled another suit because they did not like the judge to whom the previous case was assigned.
His words: „I don‘t know how people become SAN these days. This case was filed by a senior advocate for that matter, J.J. Usman.
„I want Nigerians to hear this. They withdrew it and secretly refiled it. Again, the same lawyer, the same matter, the same thing.
„And they said it has been assigned to Justice Sulaiman…It is the same lawyer, a Senior Advocate, Usman or whatever they called him because the Wike group wants it.
„They want to destroy the whole of the judiciary and now set a precedent that people go, claim in their dream that oh, they have expelled somebody from the party and declare his seat vacant.
„What kind of privilege would that be?…“
Meanwhile, in Ibrahim‘s letter, the lawyer demanded a retraction of the derogatory statements and asked the lawmaker to tender an unreserved apology.
„The ordinary inference decipherable from the allegations made against our client in the said publication mean and was understood to mean that:
„Our client does not merit the privilege and conferment on him as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, that our client is a tool used to manipulate the judicial system, that our client engages in unethical conduct as a lawyer, lamentably, our client is a person who does not worth to be called a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.“
Ibrahim, however, clarified that their client (Usman) is a lawyer who has distinguished himself in the country‘s legal establishment. He has a clear record of an intellectually robust contribution to constitutional, electoral litigation, and the administration of justice in Nigeria.
He says his professional practice has consistently spanned about two decades of exploits at all levels of Nigeria‘s pyramidal order of courts.
Against this backdrop, he said their client would not rest on his oars in ensuring an immediate redemption of the damages the lawmaker had done to his reputation.
„On the strength of this, I would like to ask you to retract all the derogatory statements made about our client on Arise News as mentioned above and tender an unreserved apology.
„For good measure, the said retraction should be done within 2 (two) clear days from the date of receipt of this letter in the same medium and other media outfit and in a tabloid which has a wide circulation within Abuja and beyond, while the apology must also be in written form and addressed to our client and same must be published in at least seven national dailies.
„Failure to comply with the above directive shall certainly leave us with no other option than to set the machinery of the law in motion towards the protection of our client‘s reputation.
„Be it known to you that this procedure may attract a behemoth monetary compensation in damages,“ Ibrahim warned.
