The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory sitting in Abuja has fixed October 18, 2021 for the hearing of a suit against Lauretta Onochie, a media aide to the President Muhammadu Buhari

Justice Yusuf Halilu stated this when the case brought before it by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, Peter Nwaoboshi, came up on Monday.

When the matter was called, Onochie, also a nominee for post of National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, was absent from court.

Consequently, Nwaoboshi’s lawyer, A.A. Agbogede, informed the court that all the processes have been served by substituted means via a newspaper publication as was earlier directed by the court on November 12, 2020.

Nwaoboshi had brought a N1bn suit against Onochie for allegedly defaming him in a social media post on June 8, 2020.

He also prayed the court for “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, her agents, servants, privies and any other person howsoever described, acting for and on her behalf, from further publishing/posting any other false and damaging publication in respect of the claimant.”

The lawmaker also prayed for “directing the defendant to publicly apologise to the claimant for the said false and misleading publication/post of June 8, 2020 and any other publication/post on her other social media platforms against the claimant.”

Nwaoboshi recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress.