Judge Denies Recusal In Libel Suit Involving Buhari’s Ex-Minister

On Monday, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court Justice, Keziah Ogbonnaya, rejected the request to withdraw from a libel suit filed by former Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.

Onyeama had taken legal action against Lillian Onoh, a Career Ambassador in the Ministry and his former wife’s sister, accusing her of defamation through a series of memos during his tenure as a Minister.

Before the court could address the matter, the defendant, represented by lawyer Richard Aneke, requested the judge’s recusal, citing alleged bias.

Aneke pointed to a pending petition before the Chief Judge seeking reassignment of the case and a separate petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) seeking disciplinary action against Justice Ogbonnaya for perceived partiality.

The defendant objected to the judge based on shared Enugu State origins between the former Minister and the presiding judge, claiming a conspiracy to deny her justice and mentioning the case file transfer from Justice Eleojo Enenche.

In her ruling on Monday, Justice Ogbonnaya declined recusal, asserting that the case was duly assigned to her by the Chief Judge, Hussein Baba-Yusuf.

She clarified that only the Chief Judge could reassign cases and emphasized that the case would proceed until officially directed otherwise.

The court adjourned the case until December 14 for further proceedings.