A businessman, Christopher Ogbonna, the husband of one of the flight registered customers, Mrs Nneka has filed a counterclaim in Air Peace’s N270m defamation lawsuit at a Lagos State High Court.
On 28 September 2020 Air Peace Ltd., and three of its employees Captain Horace Miller Jaja, Adedoyin Adeniji and Deborah Bazuaye instituted charges against Christopher Ogbonna, demanding a total of N270m for defamation claims.
The gravamen of their complaint was that starting on the 24th day of July 2020, Mr Christopher Ogbonna falsely and maliciously published defamatory material against the Claimants using his Twitter handle @qriscero and the hashtag #getpeacefornneka.
The Claimants contended that the words used by Christopher Ogbonna in their natural, fair and ordinary meaning meant and were intended, and were understood to mean that Air Peace and its staff oppress and intimidate people/customers and have no respect for their customers, that Captain Horace Miller-Jaja who has been a pilot for 32 years is wicked and cruel and has no respect for customers, and that Adedoyin Adeniji and Deborah Bazuaye are extortionists and as lawyers, that can lead to their names being struck out as legal practitioners.
In his defence to the lawsuit, Christopher Ogbonna pleaded the defence of truth and justification.
He further pleaded that the statements which he made using his Twitter handle @qriscero in their natural, fair and ordinary meaning meant, were intended and were understood by all responsible persons who read them to mean that Air Peace Ltd. and its staff oppressed and intimidated his wife who was one of their registered paying customers and had no respect whatsoever for her.
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Similarly, that Captain Horace Millar-Jaja who had been a pilot for 38 years as at 10 December 2019 and who labelled the Defendant’s wife (who was seated on her seat with her seatbelt fastened) a hijacker (a criminal) who had hijacked the aircraft and ordered her unlawful disembarkation was, indeed, wicked, cruel and had no respect whatsoever for his wife.
He also stated in the court papers that when his wife tried to settle the matter with Air Peace amicably, Deborah Bazuaye and Adedoyin Adeniji actually tried to extort over N3,000,000.00 (Three Million Naira) from his wife under pain of continued detention of her international passport by the Nigeria Police (which they achieved since his wife’s international passport remained in the custody of the Nigeria Police for over 8 months) and her being charged to court for a false, trumped up criminal offence.
Christopher Ogbonna also filed a N303m counterclaim in which he also sought 13 declaratory reliefs as well as other reliefs against the Claimants and their counsel, John Mbanefo Ikwuegbue, whom he accused of gross professional misconduct in the court proceedings.
The matter which was scheduled for further proceedings this week Monday before Justice Fadipe at the High Court of Lagos State sitting at Ikeja didn’t hold
However, the court has fixed 14 April 2021, as a new date to entertain the suit.
Investigation by Top Court News revealed that despite service of Statement of Defence and Counterclaim by Christopher Ogbonna’s to Air Peace Ltd since November 2020, the airline is yet to file both their reply to Christopher Ogbonna’s Statement of Defence and their Statement of Defence to his counterclaim.
