A Federal Capital Territory High Court has granted an interlocutory injunction restraining a former Commissioner of Information in Abia State, Barr. Eze Chikamnayo, from publishing defamatory content against Governor Alex Otti pending the determination of a N100billion defamation suit filed by the governor.
Justice J.E. Obanor, in a ruling delivered on Thursday, ordered Chikamnayo to cease “writing, authoring, sharing, circulating, broadcasting, voicing, forwarding and/or syndicating the writing and publication of contents defamatory of the Claimant on the Defendant’s Facebook wall ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo’ and/or any other social/digital media platform such as X, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Tiktok, including the traditional media to wit: the newspaper houses, the radio and television pending the determination of the substantive suit that gave rise to this application.”
The judge stated in the order: “Having carefully considered the application and all the processes before the Court, and there being no process challenging same, I am satisfied as to the need to grant the interlocutory order sought. Motion No. M/15807/2025 is hereby granted, and the orders are accordingly made as prayed, pending the determination of the substantive suit.”
The court subsequently adjourned to January 19, 2026 for hearing.
The court’s decision follows a motion on notice filed by Governor Otti’s legal team led by Dr. Sonny Ajala, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, which accused Chikamnayo of continuing to publish offensive materials against the governor despite being served with court papers on October 17, 2025.
According to court documents, Chikamnayo allegedly published a series of defamatory posts on his Facebook page ‘Iyierioba Chikamnayo’ between October 17 and October 31, 2025, after being served with the originating processes in the suit.
The posts included statements such as “Alex Otthief Will Lose by 2027 and Abia State will remain peaceful,” “Alex Otthief is a confirmed bully. He is obviously jittery!!!!” and “Otthief is a thief.”
In an affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Ifeanyi Michael Agbo, the practice manager at Deeplaw Associates, the governor’s legal team stated: “The Defendant/Respondent who is a legal practitioner and very knowledgeable of the duty imposed by law when a lawsuit is pending has remained defiant in sustaining annoying and offensive materials and calling the Claimant/Applicant thief in offensive materials published on the Defendant/Respondent’s Facebook Wall.”