Justice S.O. Adolor of a Delta State High Court in Bomadi has awarded N30 million in damages against the In‑ ternational Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) and one of its reporters, Isaac Markson, over a publication the court found to be false, malicious and defamatory against a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Ad‑ ministration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Patrick Ziakede Akpo‑ bolokemi.
In a judgement, the judge also ordered the defendants to retract the publication and issue a public apology in three national newspapers, as well as on the ICIR website, while restraining them from making fur‑ ther defamatory statements against the claimant.
Akpobolokemi approached the court following the publication of an article titled “The Hidden Truth That Led to Killing of 17 Soldiers in Okuama Community,” which was published on April 13, 2024. The report linked him to the deployment of soldiers to Okuama community in Delta State and suggested that he used his influence to skew military intervention in favour of his community, Okoloba.
The publication further implied that his alleged role contributed to the tragic killing of 17 soldiers in the community. Aggrieved by what he described as a baseless and damaging report, Akpobolokemi insisted that the allegations were entirely false and portrayed him as complicit in a national tragedy, thereby gravely injuring his reputation.
He maintained that he was neither arrested, investigated nor prosecuted in connection with the Okuama incident and that the publication had no factual or judicial foundation. In response, the defendants challenged the jurisdiction of the Delta State High Court, arguing that the alleged libel was an online publication and that the claimant failed to establish that it was published to third parties within Delta State.
They contended that the court lacked territorial jurisdiction to enter‑ tain the suit. Justice Adolor, however, dismissed the objection, hold‑ ing that online publications are deemed published in any place where they are accessed and read.
