The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has filed a N100 billion suit against Bashir Ahmad, a former media assistant to former President Muhammadu Buhari, before an Enugu State High Court over a recent social media remark he made against him.
In the suit numbered 40/2025, filed on January 21 by Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, the IPOB leader wants the court to declare that Ahmad published a statement and utterance on his X account on January 19, 2025, that, “Anybody advocating for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, a terrorist and the leader of the proscribed terrorist organisation, IPOB, should be considered a sworn enemy of the country.”
He said the statement, which labelled him as a terrorist and accused his supporters of being enemies of the country, is libellous and defamatory.
Kanu said that labelling him a convicted terrorist by Ahmad was not only injurious but defamatory and has caused significant harm to his reputation, integrity, and standing in the community.
He prays the court for an order directing Ahmad to deliver to him an unreserved apology and to publish the same prominently in three national dailies, as well as an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant from further and forever uttering the said defamatory and libellous words about him.
Kanu is also seeking an order directing Ahmad to pay him the sum of N100 billion as general and exemplary damages for the harm caused him by the defamatory statement.
A statement of claim deposed to by Prince Emmanuel Kanu, a brother to the detained IPOB leader, said the defamatory statement read by his brother and circle of friends in Enugu was false and constituted a grave libel on his person, as the words, in their natural and ordinary meaning, portray Kanu as a convict who has been pronounced guilty of terrorism or a felon who engaged in acts of terrorism.
“That the defendant has, by his defamatory publication, brought the plaintiff to scandal, contempt, odium, public humiliation and embarrassment for which he is entitled to monetary damages, injunctive reliefs and apology, among others.”
He said unless the defendant is restrained or sanctioned, he will continue to assassinate Kanu’s character by issuing defamatory statements against him.
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