Ex-acting VC threatens lawsuit over alleged defamation

The immediate past acting vice-chancellor of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Prof Asomwan Sonnie Adagbonyin, has threatened legal action against an online media platform.

He said the online platform has continuously launched and sustained “a fierce and relentless attack on his person and integrity” through their publications.
Prof Adagbonyin made this known in a letter from the law firm of A.O.O. Ekpu and Co.

The law firm said Prof Adagbonyin had previously ignored those injurious and defamatory publications from the medium in the two and half years he served as acting Vice-Chancellor because he thought it was “a part of the burden of leadership.” He said that since leaving office in September 2024, the platform had not relented in its determination to slur him.

The firm cited a publication dated October 11, 2024, captioned: “Disgraced Former AAU AVC, Prof Adagbonyin Employed Ifeanyi Essu HOD Nursing Science with Honorary PhD Certificate” as the more recent attack on his person, noting that alongside this caption, the publication inserted a clear photograph of their client “to erase any iota of doubt about who the publication was referring to.”

Prof Adagbonyin himself considers these claims to be false and states that he was never disgraced out of office.

“I was never accused, tried or found guilty of any wrongdoing, either formally or informally, nor was I issued a sack letter from the office I occupied as AVC either by the Council or the government that appointed me ab initio”.

“I stepped aside as part of an envisaged transition, and the Chairman of the Governing Council, on behalf of the Council, said that much,” he explained. In the letter dated October 25, 2024, to the publisher of Trojan News, the firm averred that the publisher of Trojan News spread false information to discredit its client and undermine his integrity.

The firm said that the publication made wide, unverified and unsubstantiated claims that “Prof Adagbonyin’s tenure was characterised by litanies of fraudulent transactions ranging from the termination of employment of qualified staff, financial irregularities, and recruitment of unqualified staff, which it claimed are more loyal to him than the qualified staff.”

“Our client maintains that the publication is materially false. Ifeanyi Essu’s appointment as Acting Head of the Department of Nursing Science was not based on an honorary degree as the university does not recognise honorary degrees for any purpose whatsoever. Mr Essu was never appointed as a senior lecturer, and neither is a Ph.D. a requirement to act as a Head of Department.

“By your assertions, you portrayed our client as a dishonest, incompetent, hypocritical and fraudulent person. Our client has been gravely injured as a result of your said publication. He has been exposed to public odium and opprobrium,” the firm stated.

The lawyers gave the platform 14 days after receiving the letter to issue “an appropriate apology and cause same to be published in a manner acceptable to our client” and to pay N50 million damages to Prof Adagbonyin through the law office, to avoid the suit.