Ex-NCC Chair Tonye Jaja Files N1 Trillion Suit Against Malami Over Alleged Unlawful Sack and Victimisation

Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, the former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), has filed a N1 trillion fundamental rights enforcement suit against the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), and five others.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/125/2026 and filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Jaja is challenging his alleged unlawful removal from office and subsequent victimisation by security agencies allegedly acting on Malami’s instructions.

Listed alongside Malami as respondents in the suit are Dayo Apata (SAN), the former Solicitor-General of the Federation; the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation; the Nigeria Police Force; and the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to court documents, Jaja was appointed as the NCC Board Chairman on May 13, 2019, for a statutory four-year tenure.

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He averred that his troubles began when he lodged a formal complaint with Malami, then the supervising Minister of Justice, regarding the conduct of the Commission’s Director-General.

Jaja claimed that rather than acting on his complaint, Malami and the other respondents orchestrated his removal without a query or an opportunity to be heard.

He stated that his sack was conveyed via a letter dated October 15, 2020, signed by Dayo Apata. He further alleged that Malami maliciously paid N2 million to publicize his removal on television.

Beyond his dismissal, the lawyer alleged a campaign of harassment involving security agencies. He claimed that police officers invited him for questioning but later confessed that they found his hands were clean and that they had been paid to deal with and torment him by the former AGF.

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Similarly, Jaja alleged that he honored an invitation by the DSS, where operatives reportedly told him they were acting on Malami’s instructions to punish him, only to later release him after finding him innocent.

He linked his ordeal to assistance he allegedly rendered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in exposing Malami, which he claims provoked a vendetta.

Dr. Jaja is asking the court for a declaration that his removal without a fair hearing violated his constitutional rights.

He is seeking N1 trillion in damages, jointly and severally against the respondents, a public apology published in two national newspapers, and N5 million as the cost of litigation.

Despite appeals for reinstatement from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and other bodies, Jaja stated that the injustice remains unredressed. No date has been fixed for the hearing.