Onoh Vs Onyeama: Nigerian diplomat files libel suit against former minister in US
A former Nigerian Ambassador to Namibia, Lilian Onoh, has filed a libel lawsuit against former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and a permanent secretary at the ministry, Gabriel Aduda, in a US court.
The case has been assigned to Judge Jane Boyle for adjudication, but a date for the hearing has not been set.
In the court documents, Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton, accused Onyeama and Aduda of using an online newspaper based in New York to defame her.
In April, the newspaper published an article claiming that Onoh was dismissed by the Nigerian government due to misappropriation of N50 million.
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Thornton argued that the newspaper’s portrayal of his client as corrupt was false.
He claimed that Onoh was never terminated from any government posting for misappropriation of funds and that Onyeama did not create a seven-person committee to investigate her nor did Aduda head up any such committee.
Onoh had in a series of memos to then Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, accused Onyeama of condoning corrupt practices at the foreign ministry.
As an ambassador, she reported multiple incidents of embezzlement of millions of US dollars and billions of naira of Nigerian government funds by various officials.
She also reported the embezzlement of $2.8 million in Red Cross funds meant for Haiti earthquake victims and visa racketeering against the USA and other countries in which her successor in Jamaica had engaged.
In her prayers before the judge, Thornton demanded costs of litigation and “all such other and further relief at law and in equity to which Onoh may show herself to be justly entitled.”
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