Onochie in trouble as Atiku file N2.5bn defamation suit against her

Loretta Onochie, president Muhammadu Buhari’s aide on social media 

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has filed a N2.5 billion defamation suit against Lauretta Onochie, special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on social media.

Atiku filed the suit before a federal capital territory (FCT) through Mike Ozekhome (SAN), his counsel.



Onochie had tweeted that Atiku was on the watch list of security operatives in the United Arab Emirates and had travelled “to shop for terrorists in the Middle East”

But reacting, Atiku described the report as false and an attempt to damage his high reputation.

“To say that the claimant is shopping for terrorists knowing same to be untrue and without any foundation is not only dishonest and reckless, but is calculated and politically designed to instigate security agents against him not only in the UAE, but across the world,” he said in a statement of claim accompanying the suit.

The presidential candidate of the PDP had demanded an apology, retraction and payment of N500 million compensation from Onochie “to assuage” the damage her social media post caused him.



He had also threatened to sue her should she fail to accede to the demand within 48 hours.

But Onochie did not retract the statement. A development Atiku interpreted to mean that she was unmoved by his demand. He said rather than show remorse, she made another derogatory publication and also published same globally online in the social and other print media against his person, on May 20.