A Magistrate Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, has begun hearing of the case between the Commissioner of Police and former employee of Imo State Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Vivian Ottih, for alleged defamatory statement against former IBC Director General, James Egbuchulam.
  
Ottih, also a lawyer, is the deputy governorship candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the November 11 gubernatorial election in the state. 
  
At the hearing held yesterday, the complainant, Egbuchulam, and the defendant, Ottih, were present in court. 
 
Egbuchulam narrated: “I was appointed Director General of IBC on November 16, 2020, when I was informed that the defendant was on two-year suspension by the state government over indiscipline and misconduct. IBC management decided to present her case to the board, of which I was the Secretary. The board directed her to write an undertaking to be of good conduct, which she did and was recalled.”

“I encountered a fraudulent system in IBC, and in the course of my fight against it, I was told to go on compulsory leave by the Ministry of Information, by neither the board nor Governor Hope Uzodimma who appointed me. A day after I got the letter of the compulsory leave, Otti went on the Internet and said I had been disgraced out of IBC like a common thief and put my picture on it.”
  
According to the DG, the publication damaged his image, ridiculed his personality by age and profession as a broadcaster, an author of many books, as a knight and a senior citizen of the country that served the Federal Government meritoriously for 35 years. 
  
The Prosecuting Council, M. Ebo, tendered the printed publication and the certificate to the Magistrate, Senior Magistrate Ibe Njoku, and it was marked as Exhibit A.
 
As the defendant, Ottih, did not have a lawyer to stand for her, the Magistrate gave her the floor to cross-examine the prosecuting witness, ASP Ndumele Uchechukwu.
  
Ottih said she was not informed in time about the proceeding, and being a deputy governorship candidate of one of the parties contesting the coming election, she has a lot on her hand.
  
She pleaded for the case to be adjourned to enable her to properly prepare for it.
  
After looking into her plea and other considerations, the Magistrate adjourned the case till November 22, 2023 for further proceedings.
  
The Guardian gathered that Ottih was first arrested by the Police on October 12, 2022, and arraigned on October 14.