• Initiates contempt proceedings

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Monday Ubani has vowed to prosecute Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja over his alleged serial defamatory publications and contemptuous conduct against him.

Clinton is allegedly facing contempt proceedings on the same subject matter before Justice S.U. Bature of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in suit Number FCT/CV/4411/2025.

The position of the senior lawyer is contained in a statement by his counsel, Mr. Nkem Okoro, who said his attention and that of his client (Ubani) has once again been drawn to yet another publication authored by Jaja “wherein our client’s name was casually and maliciously inserted into an alleged criminal narrative without a single fact, detail, document, transaction, witness, or nexus linking him to any wrongdoing whatsoever.”

Okoro was referring to some letters written by Jaja to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Chairman of the EFCC, as well as Nigerians lawyers, wherein he allegedly made disparaging and defamatory statements and allegations against Ubani.

Specifically, Clinton wrote an open letter to the EFCC on January 12, 2026, with the title: “How Malami took inducements to kill the EFCC prosecution if Abubakar Olantewaju Suleiman, Director General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and thereby institutionalised 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 letter to the EFCC, Clinton equally accused Ubani of complicity in the prosecution of a former Chairman of Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), by “aiding and abetting his client escape to evade EFCC Prosecution.”

In his statement, Nkem Okoro said “this publication is not only defamatory and malicious, but also constitutes a deliberate violation of a subsisting court order restraining Tonye Clinton Jaja from publishing further defamatory or tarnishing materials against our client.

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had restrained Tonye Jaja Clinton and Lilian Okenwa (two legal practitioners) from further making derogatory publications against their senior colleague, Monday Ubani (SAN),pending th e hearing and determination of the motion on notice before the court.

The order of Justice S.U. Bature is followed a motion ex-parte No; FCT/HC/M/16245/2025, that was moved and argued by counsel to the claimant, Nkem Okoro.
Justice Bature in his enroll order dated December 9, 2025, further granted an order directing the maintenance of status quo ante bellum, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

The statement said, “Despite pending civil and criminal proceedings already instituted against him, the author has persistently continued this campaign of reckless publications in utter disregard for the authority of the court and the rule of law.

Okoro argued that mere mention of a person’s name in a criminal narrative without particulars is neither evidence nor public interest disclosure. It is character assassination and abuse of media space.

“Our client has neither had any professional, financial, administrative, or personal dealings with the the former Attorney General of the Federation Mr Malami SAN nor with the author, and has never been connected in any manner whatsoever to the allegations irresponsibly propagated in the said publication.

” The author’s complete failure to supply any factual particulars further exposes the hollowness and mischief embedded in his claims.

“We wish to place the public on notice that our firm has already activated and continues to pursue robust civil and criminal enforcement processes against Tonye Clinton Jaja arising from his serial defamatory publications and contemptuous conduct. These processes shall be methodically prosecuted to their logical conclusion until full legal redress is achieved.

If the author genuinely possesses any credible evidence against our client, the proper forum remains the courtroom, not media trials, open-letter propaganda, or reckless abuse of public platforms.

The public is therefore urged to discountenance the said publication in its entirety and to remain guided by verifiable facts, judicial processes, and the rule of law.

All further defamatory publications shall attract immediate and escalated legal consequences sooner or later. It is only a matter of time!, the statement reads.

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