“Ex-NBA Vice President Ubani Vows to Prosecute Lawyer Over Alleged Defamation”
Ex-NBA Vice President, Dr. Monday Ubani, vows to prosecute a fellow lawyer over alleged defamatory publications, as legal and contempt proceedings loom.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Monday O. Ubani, has vowed to pursue full legal action against a fellow legal practitioner, Dr. Tonye Jaja Clinton, over what he described as serial defamatory publications and contemptuous conduct.
Ubani’s position was conveyed in a statement issued by his counsel, Nkem Okoro, Esq., who disclosed that Clinton is already facing contempt proceedings before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over the same subject matter.
According to the statement, the contempt proceedings are pending before Justice S. U. Bature in a suit marked FCT/CV/4411/2025, as reflected in Form 48 (Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Court Order) filed against Clinton.
Okoro stated that his attention and that of his client had again been drawn to “yet another reckless, sensational and legally irresponsible publication” allegedly authored by Clinton, in which Ubani’s name was “casually and maliciously inserted into an alleged criminal narrative without a single fact, document, transaction, witness or nexus linking him to any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
The statement referred to a series of letters allegedly written by Clinton to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and members of the legal profession, in which disparaging and criminal allegations were made against Ubani.
One of the letters, dated January 12, 2026, and addressed to the EFCC, was titled:
“How Malami took inducements to kill the EFCC prosecution of Abubakar Olantewaju Suleiman, Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), thereby institutionalising a culture of looting, lack of meritocracy and acts of impunity committed by both the Director-General and Monday Ubani, a friend of the DG.”
In another correspondence, Clinton allegedly accused Ubani of complicity in the prosecution of a former Chairman of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), alleging that he “aided and abetted his client to escape and evade EFCC prosecution.”
Reacting, Okoro described the publications as “defamatory, malicious and a deliberate violation of a subsisting court order restraining Tonye Clinton Jaja from making or publishing further derogatory materials against our client.”
He recalled that the FCT High Court had earlier restrained Clinton and another legal practitioner, Lilian Okenwa, from further publishing or circulating defamatory materials against Ubani, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice.
The restraining order followed an ex-parte motion (No. FCT/HC/M/16245/2025) moved by Okoro, which Justice Bature granted in an enrolled order dated December 9, 2025. The court further directed the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the substantive application.
Despite the subsisting orders and ongoing civil and criminal proceedings, Okoro alleged that Clinton had continued his publications “in blatant disregard for the authority of the court and the rule of law.”
He stressed that “the mere mention of a person’s name in a criminal narrative without particulars does not amount to evidence or public-interest disclosure but constitutes character assassination and abuse of media space.”
Okoro further clarified that Ubani “has never had any professional, financial, administrative or personal dealings with the former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, nor with the author of the publications, and has never been connected in any manner whatsoever to the allegations irresponsibly propagated.”
The statement added that Clinton’s failure to provide verifiable particulars “exposes the hollowness and mischief embedded in his claims.”
The law firm warned that it had already activated “robust civil and criminal enforcement mechanisms” against Clinton and would pursue them “methodically to their logical conclusion until full legal redress is achieved.”
Okoro advised that if Clinton possessed any credible evidence, “the appropriate forum remains the courtroom, not media trials, open-letter propaganda or reckless abuse of public platforms.”
The public was urged to disregard the publications and rely solely on verifiable facts, judicial processes and the rule of law, warning that “all further defamatory publications shall attract immediate and escalated legal consequences.”
