A prominent legal practitioner, Mr. Maxwell Opara, has taken legal action against Twitter and the Department of State Services (DSS), seeking N10 billion in damages for alleged defamation.
The lawsuit, filed at the FCT High Court and marked as FCT/HC/CV/7186/23, names Twitter Nigeria Limited as the first defendant and the Director-General of the State Security Service (also known as DSS) as the second defendant. The State Security Service, as well as the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, are listed as the third and fourth defendants, respectively. The suit, dated August 11 and filed on August 14, was submitted by Malachy Nwaekpe on behalf of Opara.
Opara contends that Twitter (now known as ‘X’) negligently allowed the DSS, under the leadership of its director-general, to make defamatory, ethnic profiling, and racist comments against him on the security agency’s platform for a duration of over 96 hours on July 18.
The lawyer claims that the post in question was published and went viral, reaching millions of users. Opara describes the message as false, defamatory, demeaning, disparaging, and harmful to his reputation.
Opara is seeking several reliefs, including an order from the court compelling the second and third defendants (DG and DSS) to issue an apology on Twitter and in a widely-read daily newspaper across Nigeria.
Furthermore, he is requesting the court to direct the defendants to pay him N10 billion as general damages for the defamatory, demeaning, disparaging, and harmful words published by the third defendant, under the leadership of the second defendant, and made viral by the first defendant on its Twitter platform.
“Additionally, we are seeking an award of 10 percent post-judgment interest per annum on the entire sum from the date of the judgment until it is fully paid,” Opara added.
As of the time of reporting, no judgment had been assigned to the matter.
In a tweet cited by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the DSS allegedly wrote, “Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilizes other like-minded lawyers against DGSS. Futile efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression.
“A Biafran republic agitator and outlawed IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs? What a contradiction, what’s the connection? May Maxwell be properly educated on points of law, please.”
