'You should thank me!' - Man accused of using Chibok girls for money slams $5 million court case against FG
- A Nigerian lawyer has sued the federal government for libel
- Emmanuel Ogebe has been accused of using the Chibok girls to make money
- The Nigerian lawyer says the Nigerian government tarnished his image
Chibok girls with Mr Ogebe and some sponsors
A U.S.-based Nigerian lawyer and social welfare campaigner, Emmanuel Ogebe, has sued the Nigerian government to court.
Mr Ogebe slammed a $5 million libel lawsuit against the government, for reportedly tarnishing his image.
The social campaigner had taken 10 rescued Chibok girls to study in the United States in 2014. However, the minister of women affairs, Aisha Alhassan, in September 2016 accused him of exploiting the girls for financial gain.
She said on September 9, 2016: “We got the information that the girls were being used as tools for making money – not prostitution – but in the sense that they will be taken here and there where they go and relay their experiences during the insurgency, especially the invasion of Chibok town by Boko Haram and how they were abducted.
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“After that, people used them to ask for donations; by so doing they make money out of it. So the girls became fed up; and started complaining that they were taken to U.S. on an arrangement that they were going to send them to school and that they were going to pay for their school. But unfortunately they said they were not allowed to remain in school."
Ogebe has denied the accusation and filed the lawsuit at the Federal High Court of Abuja on January 27 against Ms Alhassan after he was removed as the guardian of the girls.
Mr Ogebe in his lawsuit said the government led a “malicious campaign to tarnish his image” and demanded that an apology be published in major newspapers in addition to the $5 million compensation.
The lawyer also said he deserved praise for the kindness he showed towards the girls who could barely speak English before he took them to the U.S. for learning instead of the accusations.
According to Premium Times, Salisu Isah, the spokesman for Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, said of his principal.
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“He is not in the country for now, I’ll get back to you with his response to the libel claims as soon as he gets back.”
Meanwhile, Chibok community is on a rebound, hundreds of thousands of Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) families from Damboa hitherto were part of the IDP population in camps in Borno state, four months ago they went back home after a safety assessment by the army.
Today, there are clear signs of a bounce back, amidst great reconstruction going on there.