Nigeria, Sept. 6 -- A Magistrate Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has discharged and acquitted a journalist accused of defaming a former Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Emmanuel Effedua.

The court delivered the judgement on 10 July.

Mr Effedua, a retired naval commodore, was first appointed rector of the academy in November 2017 and reappointed in 2021 for a final four-year term, but resigned in January 2025.

The Nigerian police had arraigned the journalist, Gideon Ekere, the publisher of ThePost Newspaper, for allegedly defaming Mr Effedua.

The arraignment followed the newspaper publication in September 2021 that Mr Effedua sacked a whistleblower for exposing the rector's alleged corruption in the academy.

The whistle...