Ex-Nigerian Ambassador sues former Foreign Minister, Onyeama for libel in US court

Former Nigerian Ambassador to Namibia Onoh Lilian has filed a libel claim against Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, the former minister of foreign affairs, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Mr. Gabriel Aduda, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, has also entered the case.

Judge Jane Boyle has been given the matter to decide, but the hearing date has not yet been set.

Onoh claimed in the court filings that Onyeama and Aduda had tarnished her reputation by employing an online newspaper with headquarters in New York.

In the lawsuit filed with the court, Onoh’s attorney, Steven Thornton, claimed that an April article in an online newspaper stated that Onoh was fired by the Nigerian government for embezzling N50 million.

Thornton, her attorney, pointed out that the media outlet released Onoh’s photo to make sure the subject of the story was accurate.

Her attorney, who notified the paper’s international readership about the misappropriation of monies intended for the operation of Nigeria’s High Commission in Namibia, denounced in court documents the paper’s depiction of his client as corrupt.

Aduda and Onyeama, according to the online daily, were part of the investigating committee that brought a fraud charge against Onoh.

Retaliating, Onoh sent a slew of memos to the former president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, accusing Onyeama of supporting unscrupulous behaviour within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As an ambassador, Onoh reportedly reported several instances of Nigerian officials embezzling millions of dollars and billions of Naira from the government of Nigeria, according to court documents.

She also disclosed the purported misappropriation of $2.8 million in Red Cross funds intended for victims of the Haitian earthquake, in addition to the acts of visa racketeering that her Jamaican replacement had committed in the USA and other nations.

The claimant’s attorney argued that the allegations made by the media in the purportedly offensive story were untrue and that she had never had her employment with the Nigerian government terminated due to financial embezzlement.

He further contended that neither Aduda nor Onyeama established a seven-member committee to look into Onoh.

Thornton asked for litigation expenses “and all such other and further relief at law and in equity to which Onoh may show herself to be justly entitled” in the claimant’s petitions before the judge.

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