The suit filed by Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton, on 22 December, also listed Sahara Reporters and its publisher Omoyele Sowore as defendants.
Lilian Onoh, a former Nigerian High Commissioner to Namibia, has filed a libel suit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and a Permanent Secretary at the ministry who now serves as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja, Gabriel Aduda.
The suit filed by Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton, on 22 December, also listed Sahara Reporters and its publisher Omoyele Sowore as defendants.
The case has been assigned to Judge Jane J. Boyle for adjudication but no date has been fixed for hearing.
According to court filings seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the plaintiff accused Messrs Onyeama and Aduda of using Sahara Reporters, a New York-based online newspaper, to defame her.
Ms Onoh and Mr Onyeama have been engaged in a legal battle in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, where Onyeama also sued Onoh for libel.
The Minister and the ex-ambassador are from the same local government area. Lilian Onoh is the daughter of a late former Governor of Enugu State, C. C. Onoh while Onyeama is the son of a late former Judge of the Supreme Court and the International Court of Justice, Dadi Onyeama and the grandson of Paramount Chief Onyeama of Eke in Enugu State.
Interestingly enough, the families have been close for two generations. Also, Onyeama was briefly married to Lilian Onoh's sister.
SaharaReporters in April reported that the former Nigerian Ambassador to Namibia and former Chargé d'Affaires to Jamaica, Lilian Onoh had been sacked by the Federal Civil Service Commission.
SaharaReporters on September 22, 2021, exposed how a report by a seven-man committee indicted Onoh over her alleged financial misappropriation while serving in the Southern African country.
SaharaReporters had also reported how Onoh was accused of illegal diversion of funds meant for the day-to-day operation of the mission and was asked to refund the sum of $45,539.11 (about N19 million), $70,448 (about N30 million), and N614,000.
Onoh was also asked to refund the sum of $42,500 as an education supplement in respect of her adopted daughters and refund $2, 614 as Excess on AIE (Excess payment).
She was also asked to refund N66,168 spent on airfare for two domestic helps, $425 spent on a stopover for "two domestic helps and N34,000 for an extra night in Abuja hotel.”
Others are: "Hotel accommodation - 11-17 December 2017, N312,000; Guest hotel accommodation - 26-31 December 2018, N268, 200."
The committee also had a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs as a member.
The committee which was set up by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama following allegations of corruption by Onoh against some officials of the Nigerian Mission in Namibia, travelled to Windhoek, Namibia on April 12, 2021, where they were received by the Charge d' Affaires, Mr. Ali Gombe.
Meanwhile, according to a letter signed by the Director of Discipline and Appeals, NA Esuabana, at the Federal Civil Service Commission, Abuja, Onoh was summarily dismissed after the Disciplinary Committee of the commission found her guilty of "breach of provisions of Financial Regulations on virement, absence from duty without leave, refusal to take/carry out lawful instruction which are acts of serious misconduct.”
Although the daughter of former Anambra State Governor, Christian Onoh was suspended since 2021, her sacking was ratified after a meeting of the committee.
The committee also directed that she should be handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for investigation.
According to the letters dated February 28 and March 22 respectively, and made available to this media, the committee sat and deliberated on the investigation carried out regarding accusations against the ambassador and therefore dismissed her forthwith.
Amid the rift between Onyeama and Onoh, the latter sent a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking the body to discipline the Nigerian judge handling the case for alleged bias.
In the suit before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Steven Thornton, said Sahara Reporters in April, published an article saying Ms Onoh was sacked by the Nigerian government on account of misappropriation of N50 million.
Mr Thornton noted that the media outlet published Ms Onoh’s photograph in the story, to ensure the object of the story was not mistaken.
In court papers, the claimant’s lawyer said that Sahara Reporters portrayed his client as being corrupt having informed its global audience of the diversion of funds meant for the running of Nigeria’s High Commission in Namibia.
“The article then claims that the Nigerian Federal Civil Service Commission fired Ms Onoh in 2021. Sahara Reporters next claimed that a ‘report by a seven-man committee indicted the controversial former Nigerian High Commissioner to Namibia over her alleged financial misappropriation while serving in the Southern African country’,” the court document reads in part.
“Sahara Reporters noted that defendant Aduda and defendant Onyeama were members of this committee.
“Sahara Reporters also referenced two alleged letters regarding Ms Onoh’s dismissal that this Commission sent to Ms Onoh detailing the reasons for her termination. The article further stated that this Commission ordered Ms Onoh to refund to the Nigerian mission all the money that she had improperly used,” the court papers also read.
In his submissions, Mr Thornton said the basis of Sahara Reporters’ article was statements and claims credited to Messrs Aduda and Onyeama about Ms Onoh.
“The reason for their making false statements about Ms Onoh was to discredit her following her reporting of corruption by those defendants,” Mr Thornton added.
Ms Onoh had in a series of memos to then Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, accused Mr Onyeama of condoning corrupt practices at the foreign ministry which he supervised.
“Specifically, as an Ambassador, Ms Onoh had reported multiple incidents of embezzlement of millions of U.S. Dollars and billions of Naira of Nigerian Government funds by various Nigerian officials.
“Further, she reported the embezzlement of $2.8 million in Red Cross Funds meant for Haiti earthquake victims as well as the egregious acts of visa racketeering against the USA and other countries in which her successor in Jamaica had engaged.”
The claimant’s lawyer contended that Sahara Reporters' claims in the alleged offending story were false.
“Ms. Onoh was never terminated from any posting with the Nigerian government for misappropriation of funds.”
He further argued that Mr Onyeama did not create a seven-person committee to investigate Ms Onoh, nor did Mr Aduda head any such committee.
“In fact, such a committee was never empaneled to investigate Ms Onoh by anyone.”
Referencing relevant U.S laws, Mr Thornton said “pursuant to 28 U.S.C. & 1332”, the court has a subject-matter jurisdiction over the case.
“This court has personal jurisdiction over the defendants given that the complaint of conduct occurred in the State of Texas.
“Venue is proper in this District and Division pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) as a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred in this District and Division.”
In the court documents, Ms Onoh who served as Nigeria’s ambassador to Namibia, and the Head of Mission in Jamaica, said Mr Sowore and Sahara Reporters knew Messrs Aduda and Onyeama’s “statements were false at the time they made them to these third parties.”
The lawyer informed the court that Sahara Reporters publication brought immense suffering to Ms Onoh whom he argued “suffered severe reputational damage, mental anguish, and economic injuries.”
“By publishing the Article on its website on April 21, 2023, Defendant Sahara Reporters and Defendant Sowore published false statements about Ms Onoh to literally the entire world.”
Mr Thornton further said Messrs Onyeama and Aduda intentionally or recklessly made the statements against Ms Onoh.
“As a result of Defendant Onyeama and Aduda’s conduct, Ms Onoh suffered severe emotional and reputational damages.”
In the claimant’s prayers before the judge, Mr Thornton demanded costs of litigation, “all such other and further relief at law and in equity to which Ms. Onoh may show herself to be justly entitled.”
Mr Sowore is currently based in Nigeria.
He is confined to Nigeria by a court order that bars him from travelling abroad because of a criminal suit filed by the government.
Sowore was allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election but was barred from travelling out of the country, and therefore has been unable to see his family based in the United States for years.
Sowore has described the charges as politically motivated over his call on Nigerians to reject the then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s bad governance.