Gbajabiamila sues ‘fake’ agency DG, demands N15bn over defamation

Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President, has initiated a N15 billion defamation lawsuit against Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew. The suit, filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, stems from allegations made by Matthew concerning a purported kickback demand. Matthew had claimed Gbajabiamila sought a 48 percent kickback from a N27.3 billion take-off grant for a federal agency.

Gbajabiamila's legal team vehemently denies these accusations, describing them as false, malicious, and defamatory. The court filing asserts that Gbajabiamila has never met Matthew nor authorized anyone to act on his behalf in such dealings. The lawsuit also addresses Matthew's claims linking Gbajabiamila to the death of Babatunde Tanimola, who Matthew alleged acted as an intermediary and died in a hotel fire. Matthew also claimed to have survived an assassination attempt and alleged a directive to discontinue police efforts to recover his stolen phones.

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The claimant has never met the defendant, never held any meeting with him and has never authorised any intermediary, representative, agent or proxy to demand or receive money on his behalf.

Gbajabiamila's solicitors had previously issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding a retraction and apology. However, Matthew allegedly made further statements in an interview with social media influencer VeryDarkMan, which Gbajabiamila's team claims contained admissions contradicting his earlier allegations. In this interview, Matthew reportedly admitted to never meeting Gbajabiamila in person or via video call, and lacking verification of the identity of the individual he believed to be acting for the Chief of Staff.

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When we got here, we saw some papers littered on the ground. That was when we confirmed that actually something of that nature must have taken place in these classes.