May Edochie, the estranged wife of popular Nollywood actor Yul Edochie, has taken firm legal action against her former lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, demanding a whopping ₦1 billion in damages over allegations of defamation, breach of trust, and cyberbullying. The development marks yet another dramatic twist in the ongoing controversies surrounding the Edochie family, but this time, May is directing her battle towards a former confidant who she claims betrayed her trust in the worst way possible.
In a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter, issued through her legal representatives at Graylaw Partners, May accused Ugwuonye of engaging in a deliberate smear campaign against her. She alleged that he has consistently been publishing false, misleading, and damaging statements about her across various social media platforms. According to her, his actions go far beyond casual commentary, as they amount to character assassination, harassment, and calculated attacks meant to ruin her public image and threaten her peace of mind.
The letter detailed that Ugwuonye’s posts have not only been defamatory but have also carried tones of ridicule, intimidation, and malicious threats. May alleged that he has deliberately spread fabricated claims about her personal and family life, further compounding the trauma she has endured in recent years. She described the behaviour as “unwarranted, reckless, and extremely harmful.”
Beyond social media defamation, May also accused Ugwuonye of setting up multiple online communities, including WhatsApp groups, which were allegedly designed to tarnish her image. In these groups, she claims, her private and privileged information—entrusted to him during his tenure as her supposed legal adviser—was unlawfully shared in exchange for money, exposing her to both reputational and security risks. According to the letter, this amounted to a gross breach of trust and professional misconduct.
More shockingly, the cease-and-desist document revealed that Ugwuonye allegedly presented himself to May as a qualified legal practitioner, despite lacking the proper legal standing to represent clients in such capacity. By doing so, he is accused of fraudulently exploiting her vulnerability, gaining access to her sensitive information, and later weaponising it for financial gain and public humiliation. Her legal team described this as “a calculated case of deceit and exploitation.”
“By so doing, you deceitfully exploited our client’s unawareness, held yourself out in a fraudulent manner, and are now making illegitimate profit from her privileged information in addition to your defamatory publications,” the letter read in part, stressing that Ugwuonye’s actions had crossed all ethical and legal boundaries.
May further noted that Ugwuonye’s constant defamatory posts had emboldened other individuals online to join in amplifying the negative narratives against her, creating a ripple effect that has inflicted severe and irreparable harm on her reputation, career, and mental well-being. She lamented that what should have been confidential legal counsel has instead been twisted into a source of ongoing trauma and ridicule.
Through her lawyers, May outlined her demands in clear terms: an immediate halt to all defamatory publications, the deletion and withdrawal of every harmful post previously shared, a public apology and retraction across all his platforms, and a compensation of ₦1 billion in damages to account for the harm already caused. Her legal team warned that failure to comply would leave her with no option but to seek full redress through the Nigerian courts.
This legal move by May comes at a time when she has been dealing with personal and public struggles, but it also highlights her resolve to defend her name against what she perceives as orchestrated attempts to destroy her credibility. The case against Ugwuonye, if pursued in court, could potentially set a precedent for how issues of defamation, cyberbullying, and professional misconduct are addressed in Nigeria’s legal system.
For now, all eyes remain on whether Emeka Ugwuonye will comply with the demands, issue a public apology, and make financial amends, or if this legal battle will escalate into a high-profile court case that could further dominate headlines in the coming weeks.