Defamation: Former Imo Gov, Achike Udenwa demands N5b from Kenneth Okonkwo

By Chidi Nkwopara
Former Imo State governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, has demanded N5 billion from a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Kenneth Okonkwo, over the alleged defamatory remarks he made recently on a national television programme.
Udenwa made the demand in a three-page letter, CSAN/GC/26/25, dated June 11, 2026, addressed to Kenneth Okonkwo and signed by his lawyer, Chief Soronnadi A. Njoku, SAN.
Part of the letter read: “Most regrettably, your defamatory statement against him (Udenwa), accusing him of illegally securing money from aspirants by compulsion and violence, or wrongly and illegally obtaining money from those aspirants by compulsion or violence, which statement you made during a live television programme broadcast, both nationally and internationally and which statement was subsequently published by numerous media houses and several online platforms, has greatly injured our client in his credit and reputation and portrayed him as a common criminal, who abuses his position for personal monetary gains.
“In the circumstance, we do hereby, on his instructions, give you seven days from the date of this letter to a write a strongly worded letter of apology to him, published in five national dailies, as well as aired, prime time, in Channels Television, wherein you clearly, in unmistakable terms, retract your said publication against him, and giving an undertaking never to defame him ever again.
“We also demand the payment of the sum of N5 billion as compensation to him to assuage the injuries your said false publication has occasioned to him.
“Take notice that if the above demands are not strictly met within the stipulated time frame, we have his instructions to commence legal proceedings against you in the appropriate High Court in Imo State, to claim the said sum of N5 billion as damages against you, as well as the appropriate injunctive reliefs against you.”