Gov Otti Gets Nod To Serve Man N50bn Lawsuit Via Facebook, WhatsApp
Governor Alex Otti has secured leave of the FCT High Court, Bwari, Abuja, to serve court documents through electronic means to a Facebook user, Hon. Tobias Chukwudi Egeonu, otherwise known as Hon. Toby Chuks, in a N50bn defamation lawsuit.
The ruling was delivered by Justice A. O. Ebong on February 11, 2025, in response to a motion ex parte filed by Otti’s legal team, led by Dr. Sonny Apia, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and R. O. Onumajuru.
The suit, marked FCT/HC/CV/66/2025, followed an alleged defamatory Facebook post published by Egeonu on December 8, 2024, titled ‘What Alex Otti Cannot Destroy Does Not Exist: Vol. 1’.
Justice Ebong granted the plaintiff’s motion as prayed and ordered that the defendant be served with the writ of summons, statement of claim, hearing summons, and other court processes through his Facebook account, Hon. Toby Chuks, and WhatsApp numbers.
The order followed Egeonu’s acknowledgment of Otti’s demand letter via WhatsApp on December 14, 2024.
The court further ordered the defendant to cause an appearance to be entered for him within 30 days after the service of the writ on him.
The matter was then adjourned to March 27, 2025, for mention.
THE WHISTLER reported that Governor Otti is seeking a declaration that Egeonu’s Facebook post caused him a loss of reputation, goodwill, and standing as a political leader.
The governor is demanding an order restraining Egeonu from publishing further defamatory content against him, N50bn in general damages for defamation, psychological trauma, and loss of reputation, a public apology from Egeonu to be published on his Facebook page and in four national newspapers – ThisDay, The National Ambassador, The Punch, and The Nation, and N150m as the cost of prosecuting the suit.
Otti, through his counsel, had initially written to Egeonu on December 13, 2024, seeking a retraction of the Facebook post along with a public apology and N50bn in damages.
Egeonu allegedly accused Otti of financial mismanagement during his tenure as Group Managing Director of the now-defunct Diamond Bank and corruption as governor of Abia State.
Otti’s legal team described the allegations as “unwarranted online libellous publication from the pits of hell.”
It warned Egeonu that failure to comply within seven days at the time would result in legal action.
Gov Otti Gets Nod To Serve Man N50bn Lawsuit Via Facebook, WhatsApp is first published on The Whistler Newspaper