The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja has scheduled December 9, 2025, for the mention of suit number CV/4502/25, filed by Tonye Patrick Cole, the 2023 All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, against Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and Channels Incorporated Limited.
Cole accuses Wike of making false, malicious, offensive, and damaging statements during a Channels TV broadcast on September 18, 2025, which he claims have injured his reputation in personal, professional, and public capacities.
Court documents highlight that Wike’s remarks suggested financial impropriety and mismanagement of state resources, specifically referencing Rivers State gas and the Olympia Hotel.
Cole’s writ of summons and statement of claim detail how Wike’s comments imputed dishonesty and wrongdoing, severely harming his standing nationally and internationally.
His legal team, led by J.S. Okutepa (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), argues the broadcast caused monumental injury, humiliation, mental anguish, and reputational harm, even leading some corporate and philanthropic partners to suspend collaborations. Cole, a co-founder and former group executive director of Sahara Group, emphasizes that multiple judicial panels from 2015 to 2023 cleared him of any wrongdoing in the referenced $432 million gas privatization deal, where NG Power paid $302.4 million in full.
The claimant demands N40 billion in general and aggravated damages for the “malicious, reckless, and unfounded defamatory broadcast and publications”.
He also seeks N500 million for litigation costs, alongside declaratory reliefs affirming the statements as false and defamatory. Further requests include orders for the defendants to retract all copies from platforms like YouTube and social media, issue a public apology via Channels TV’s “Politics Today” and five national newspapers, and a perpetual injunction barring further defamatory publications.
Prior to filing on November 8, 2025, Cole’s team served a pre-action notice and letter of demand dated October 8 on Wike and Channels TV, initially seeking N20 billion each in compensation, retraction, and apology, but received no compliance. The court has directed the defendants to enter appearance within 21 days of service.
