Boko Haram: Ihejirika Slams N100 bn Suit Against Australian Hostage Negotiator Davies 

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Australian hostage negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davies, now has a date at a High Court sitting in Abuja.

SAN FRANCISCO, December 22, (THEWILL) – Davies has been dragged before  the court for accusing former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, of sponsoring Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.  

In a libel suit filed on his behalf at the Court by his lawyers, Chief Nnoruka  Udechukwu (SAN), Professor C.U. Ilegbune (SAN) and Ben Anechebe, (SAN), the former COAS is demanding N100 billion as aggravated damages for defamation from Davies.

Ihejirika is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining Davies or his agents from further making defamatory comments about him.

Aside this, the former COAS is also praying for  “An order for the Defendant to publish forthwith a dull and unqualified retraction and apology conspicuously in the front page of THISDAY Newspaper to assuage the plaintiff for the said false malicious and libelous publication.

Ihejirika said due to allegations made against him by the Australian negotiator, “he has suffered ‎grievous wrong and he has been exposed to scandal, odium, ridicule, humiliation and his character, credit and reputation brought into disrepute, both in Nigeria and abroad.”

The former COAS has already  secured an order of court to serve the process abroad and  his lawyers have applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable them serve Davis with the court processes at his base in Perth, Australia.  

It must be noted that since Australia and Nigeria are members of the Commonwealth,  a special procedure is needed when serving court processes on defendant residing in a Commonwealth country other than the country where the writ originated.

Ihejirika, who maintained that he retired meritoriously ‎from the military in January after a successful career, having served the army without blemish, said: “On or about the 28th day of August 2014, the Defendant granted a multimedia and television interview broadcast to AriseTv‎, which aired in Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, and subsequently published by numerous newspapers and media houses; wherein the defendant when asked during the AriseNews segment of the interview to name the sponsors of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, falsely and maliciously spoke of the plaintiff in the following words, to wit:

“There is the former Chief of Army Staff, retired January, or actually sacked by the President he is another sponsor. I could give you the names if you like but I have no fear that these were very confident and it is in fact Boko Haram senior commanders who have been naming them.'”

According to Ihejirika,  the spoken words and publication in their ordinary meaning were ‎understood by reasonable members of the society who listened/watched ‎ the said AriseNews broadcast in Abuja to mean that he sponsored Boko Haram, a terrorist sect to wage war, insurrection or insurgency against Nigeria.

Maintaining  that the publication implied that he did not retire but was sacked by the President and that he had committed treason or treason able felony, the former COAS said the public who listened to the broadcast believed that ‎he had conducted himself in a manner tantamount to breach of his oath of allegiance and service as a soldier and senior officer in the Nigerian Army.

Ihejirika, in an affidavit he deposed to,  insisted that he had suffered grievous wrong and had been exposed to scandal, odium, ridicule, humiliation and that his character, credit and reputation brought into disrepute, both in Nigeria and abroad.