_Says alleged defamation will be answered in court, not with “handcuffs, detention cells and criminal prosecution”_
Owerri-based legal practitioner and Principal Solicitor of Credo Legal, Chinedu Agu, Esq., has issued a formal 72-hour pre-action notice to the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Imo State on Electronic and Creative Media, Mr. Ambrose Nwaogwugwu, demanding the immediate withdrawal of what Agu describes as a false and defamatory publication against him.
In the strongly worded notice dated 5 September 2026, Agu demanded the deletion of the publication, an unreserved public apology and retraction with comparable prominence, as well as a written undertaking by Nwaogwugwu to cease further publication of the allegation.
The controversy arose from a publication attributed to Nwaogwugwu and circulated yesterday on Facebook and other media platforms under the headline:
“WHEN CHINEDU AGU SIGNED FOR GOVERNMENT MONEY: THE HYPOCRISY BEHIND THE N350M NBA ATTACK ON UZODIMMA — DOES AGU WANT IMO TO FORGET THE N15M HE PERSONALLY SOUGHT FROM UZODIMMA?”
According to Agu, the publication represented that while he served as Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Owerri Branch in 2021, he personally signed a letter requesting N15 million from the Imo State Government for the Branch’s 2021 Law Week.
Agu has categorically denied the allegation.
In his notice, he stated:
“That assertion is false, defamatory and wholly without factual foundation.”
He further challenged Nwaogwugwu to make public any document bearing his signature in support of the allegation.
Agu wrote:
“For the avoidance of doubt, I never authored, signed, co-signed or endorsed any letter requesting Governor Hope Uzodimma, the Government of Imo State to grant the Nigerian Bar Association, Owerri Branch, the sum of N15,000,000.00 for the 2021 Law Week. I therefore challenge you to produce the purported letter bearing my signature upon which you founded this damaging allegation.”
The lawyer maintained that the publication went beyond ordinary political criticism and, in his view, attacked his character and professional standing by portraying him as hypocritical, dishonest and lacking in integrity.
He stated:
“Your publication, particularly its headline and repeated assertions, was calculated and/or is reasonably capable of portraying me as hypocritical, dishonest and lacking in professional integrity, and has exposed me to ridicule, contempt and opprobrium before members of the legal profession and the general public.”
He added that, having consistently guarded what he described as his professional independence and integrity, the publication amounted to “a grave and actionable injury” to his personal and professional reputation.
Perhaps the most striking portion of Agu’s pre-action notice is his decision to draw a direct contrast between the civil action he now proposes to take against Nwaogwugwu and the treatment he says he received from the Imo State Government in 2025.
Agu recalled that publications he made against Governor Hope Uzodimma and members of his administration had previously resulted in a police petition allegedly made through the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Declan Emelumba, after which Agu said he was arrested, detained, charged under the cybercrime regime, arraigned and remanded in custody by the Magistrate, Obinna Njemanze.
In one of the most pointed paragraphs of the notice, Agu wrote:
“It is particularly instructive that you are a senior media aide in the same Government which, when confronted with my publications which it considered defamatory of the Governor and members of his administration, elected not to pursue the ordinary civil remedy of defamation but instead caused a petition to be made to the Police through Mr. Declan Emelumba [Commissioner for Information], following which I was arrested, detained, charged under the cybercrime regime, arraigned and remanded in custody in September 2025 by the Magistrate Obinna Njemanze.”
But Agu said he would not respond to Nwaogwugwu’s publication by seeking his arrest or criminal prosecution.
Instead, he declared:
“I shall not repay that conduct in kind. I will not procure your arrest, detention or criminal prosecution merely because you have published what I consider to be defamatory of me. I shall instead afford you the civility and due process, which I was denied by pursuing the appropriate civil remedies before a court of competent jurisdiction.”
That declaration appears to be as much a message to the Imo State Government as it is to Nwaogwugwu personally.
Agu went further to say that his proposed civil action would serve not only to vindicate his name but also to make a broader point about the appropriate legal response to alleged defamation.
According to him:
“In doing so, I intend not merely to vindicate my reputation, but also to demonstrate to you and, indeed, to the Government you serve, that the lawful and civilised response to an allegedly defamatory publication is to approach the courts for redress and prove one’s case, not to deploy the coercive machinery of the State, the Police and the criminal process against one’s critic.”
He added:
“Should litigation become necessary, I intend to pursue it to its logical conclusion.”
Agu subsequently issued three specific demands, which he said must be complied with within 72 hours of receipt of the notice.
First, he demanded that Nwaogwugwu:
“Delete and permanently take down the said publication from your Facebook account and every other platform, page, group, forum, or medium through which you published it or caused it to be published.”
Second, he demanded:
“Publish, with comparable prominence, an unreserved retraction and written apology on your Facebook account and on every platform where the defamatory material was published, expressly acknowledging that the allegation that I personally signed or made the purported N15 million request was false and incorrect.”
Third, Agu demanded a written undertaking that the governor’s aide would “cease and desist from any further publication, republication or dissemination of the said false allegation.”
The lawyer warned that failure to comply fully within the stipulated 72-hour period would result in civil proceedings being instituted without any further notice.
He stated:
“Take further notice that, upon your failure, refusal or neglect to comply fully with these demands within the stipulated seventy-two [72] hours, I shall, without further recourse to you, institute appropriate civil proceedings for defamation and seek the appropriate reliefs.”
Agu reserved arguably his most politically loaded statement for the concluding portion of the letter, where he expressly said his decision to pursue a civil remedy instead of making a police complaint was deliberate.
In words clearly directed beyond Nwaogwugwu to those exercising governmental authority in Imo State, Agu wrote:
“For the avoidance of doubt, the decision to invoke the civil jurisdiction of the Court rather than resort to police intervention is deliberate.”
He continued:
“Those who wield governmental power ought, perhaps more than anyone else, to understand that criticism and alleged defamation are answered in a courtroom by evidence and law, not by handcuffs, detention cells and the machinery of criminal prosecution.”
Then came perhaps the sharpest line in the notice:
“I shall give you the opportunity to learn, through the orderly process of civil adjudication, the standard of restraint which the Government you serve ought itself to have observed in my case.”
Agu concluded by making it clear that the letter constitutes a formal pre-action notice and does not amount to a waiver of any other rights or remedies available to him in law.
He wrote:
“This letter, therefore, constitutes my formal pre-action notice. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as a waiver, abandonment, or limitation of any of my rights, claims or remedies available in law.”
The notice was signed by Chinedu Agu, Esq., Principal Solicitor, Credo Legal.
The development now places the Governor’s media aide under a 72-hour deadline to either comply with Agu’s demands or face a threatened civil defamation action.
Beyond the immediate dispute over the alleged N15 million request, however, Agu’s notice has introduced a wider question into the controversy, which is whether public officials who believe they have been defamed should seek vindication through civil litigation rather than resort to police arrest and criminal prosecution.
With Agu expressly promising to pursue the matter “to its logical conclusion” if the demands are ignored, attention will now turn to whether Nwaogwugwu will retract the publication, produce the letter which Agu has challenged him to produce, or elect to defend the allegation before a court of law.
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