ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has filed another N20billion suit against Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The IPOB leader, through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, said that the AGF defamed him, when he claimed that he (Kanu) jumped bail. Mazi therefore, asked for N20bn for damages.
Kanu, through his lawyer, said Malami’s claim that he jumped bail despite a court order clearing him was libelous.
This is coming barely four days after the initial N20billion suit filed by Kanu against Malami was discontinued.
The first suit dated 23 September, had sought “a declaration that the defendants’ arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff (Kanu) at a location in Kenya and the subsequent imprisonment of the plaintiff in the aircraft that conveyed him from Kenya to Nigeria amounted to false arrest and false imprisonment.”
However, in the latest suit dated 21 November, Kanu demanded compensation following alleged defamatory and libelous claims against him.
The suit was contained in letter sent to Malami titled, “RE: Pre-action notice and formal demand for settlement of the claim of defamation/libel of the character of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu grounded on your false, defamatory and libelous publications that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail.”
Ejimakor said: “Yesterday, I served on AGF Malami a Legal Notice (as required by law), notifying him of my intention to take legal action against him for his defamatory & libelous statements that #MNK jumped bail.”
Condemning Malami’s claim that Kanu jumped bail, Ejimakor said in the letter, “In view of the said judgment of the Abia State High Court, your above utterances were false, malicious and reckless and they were read and heard worldwide and portrayed our Client in light.”
Kanu in the letter, demanded “the sum of N20,000,000,000.00 (Twenty Billion Naira only) being general and exemplary damages;
“An unreserved personal letter of apology, to be prominently and boldly published full-page in two Nigerian Newspapers of national circulation, namely: Guardian Newspaper and Sun Newspaper.
“You shall write and deliver to your superior officer(s) and/or your employer(s) a Legal Opinion to the effect that our Client did not jump bail in view of the 19th January 2022 Judgment of the High Court of Abia State.”