EMEKA Ugwonye’s scurrilous “defamation and invasion of privacy” lawsuit against Omoyele Sowore, founder of Sahara Reporters, a New York-based online news outfit, was dismissed by an American judge on Monday.
Sahara Reporters had published a series of news stories detailing Mr. Ugwonye’s controversial deals with the Washington DC embassy of Nigeria, in which he is reported to have withheld up to $1.5 million in tax refunds meant for the embassy.
Ugwonye, who currently has his license to practice law in the state of Maryland suspended, reacted to the damning publications by instituting a suit against Sahara Reporters, seeking punitive measures for what he claimed was a malicious publication.
Judge Peter Messitte gave his ruling on Monday by dismissing Mr. Ugwuonye’s claims as lacking in merit. Under local laws, Ugwonye has 30 days to appeal the ruling.
The ruling came months after a similar charge brought against the publication was withdrawn in May. The case, brought before a New York state court, was filed by US-based Nigerian pastor against the website over a 2010 report alleging fraud involving the Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations, Joy Ogwu.
In a 15-page memorandum accompanying his ruling, Judge Messitte said the lawyer had failed to disprove the report, or that the publication was done with “actual malice.”
The judge said summary judgment was “warranted when a party fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the elements essential to the party’s claim and on which the party will bear the burden of proof at trial.”
Mr. Sowore, whose reports have over years unsettled several public officials in Nigeria, was represented by notable free speech attorneys, Laurie Babinski and Bruce Brown at the law firm of Baker Hostetler in Washington DC.
The two lawyers are part of the pro-bono network of the UK-based Media Legal Defence Initiative. Mr. Ugwuonye represented himself.