The United States Appeal Court for the 4th District yesterday gave judgment in favour of Nigeria’s international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, in his defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Ogebe had sued the American news medium for defamation in 2018 alleging that WSJ had been procured by the Buhari regime to tarnish his image over the Chibok girls he sponsored to US in exchange for special access.(During the trial, WSJ journalists and co-Defendants Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson indeed published a book on the Chibok abductions.)

After Covid disruption of the case, the US District Court dismissed the case alleging Ogebe hadn’t filed a response to a Motion to Dismiss. However Ogebe appealed to the Court of Appeal claiming the lower court had been serially incompetent, inconsistent and out of touch with procedure and evidence in the case.

In its verdict yesterday, the Court of Appeal declined to delve into the merits of the substantive case but noted that the US District Court for Eastern Virginia had indeed omitted several key procedural elements.

The Appeal Court therefore vacated the judgment of the lower court and remanded it back for proper hearing.

“This is a very significant victory for us. The very fact that the Appeal Court agreed to overturn the judgment of the lower court without asking us to argue the appeal is instructive of how bad the lower court was. As the court rightly stated in its brief opinion, the facts were very clear from the appellate briefs filed and needed no further argument,” Ogebe said regarding the victory.

“Ironically the American con-man the Buhari regime used for this Wall Street Journal hit-piece, Doug Wead was buried a year ago this month. Lies are sprinters but the truth is a marathoner. Aisha Alhassan in the Nigerian defamation suit has also died but regardless, they and their living accomplices will face justice divine or human.”

This is the second legal victory for the human rights lawyer this year.

Two weeks ago, an Abuja high court dismissed two motions by the Attorney General of the Federation seeking to terminate the defamation lawsuit of international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe against the Federal Government over his sponsorship of Chibok girls to the America.

According to Ogebe, “once this US case finally proceeds, the world will ultimately see how a corrupt Nigerian government conspired with unprincipled journalists in America to sabotage a humanitarian for politics and for profit. The lies are so blatant and obvious that this will be a textbook case on journalistic unprofessionalism and media malpractice by a supposedly top American newspaper.”

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