A London-based Nigerian woman, Cynthia Chia, has been ordered by a UK High Court to pay £25,000 in damages to Idowu Ogunkanmi, a Nigerian-born businessman based in Dubai, after she falsely accused him of rape and launched a vicious nine-year campaign of harassment.
The two, having first and only once met under the circumstances of a one-night stand in 2015 at one of the Hilton Hotel, Paddington clubs, were involved in what a UK judge has now called a “horrific and malicious” smear campaign that was all based on fabrication.
Chia, who did not attend court or go through a lawyer, was convicted of harassment and libel, devoting years to spreading slander online, referring to Ogunkanmi as a “rapist,” claiming he had spiked her and fallen in love with her, impregnated her, molested her child, and even bribed police officers and hospital staff to cover up the alleged offense.
The court, however, ruled none of her claims true.
Mr. Ogunkanmi, a three-time father aged 44 and Nigerian-born energy trader residing in Dubai and regularly commuting for work, said that he had first met Ms. Chia in 2015 on a night out at Steam Bar, Hilton Hotel, London, with his friend Prisca Okoye. They parted after a night in his hotel room and went their separate ways the following day.
But what was supposed to be one evening of adult playtime became a nightmare.
By January 2016, Ms. Chia started demanding money, asserting that Ogunkanmi had slept with her friend and would ruin his life if he did not pay her some. She called his office over 100 times in a day at one point, and he had to threaten her with the Metropolitan Police.
She was arrested in June 2016 and told to have no contact with him. However, she was accused of breaching the order within weeks, threatening another of his colleagues that Ogunkanmi would \”spend the rest of his life in jail.”
Chia raised the stakes in 2016 by falsely reporting a rape to police in the UK — a charge that was dropped after Ogunkanmi returned to London voluntarily in 2017 to be interviewed. The detectives cleared him of suspicion, stating that no further action would be taken.
But Ms. Chia wasn’t done. From 2018 through 2022, she built numerous Instagram accounts, taking the names @cindylicious11 and @rapist_trying_to_avoid_justice, successively posting his photograph, name, and rape accusations. She also brought her crusade to Twitter (now X), making reference to Met Police, Dubai Police, and the National Crime Agency, accusing him of raping, drugging, and corrupting officials.
Worst of all, she accused him of molesting her child, and in her December 31, 2021, New Year’s announcement, she lied and claimed that he drugged, raped, and got her pregnant.
“She Tried to Extort Me” – Ogunkanmi
In an affidavit filed in court, Ogunkanmi stated he thought Ms. Chia was attempting to extort him. “Because I didn’t want to get extorted, she began this dirty Instagram campaign on me and her friend,” he testified.
He acknowledged that he had paid her £250 initially, thinking she wanted to cover a phone bill, but claimed things took off quickly.
“She spun incredible falsehoods — rape, kidnapping her children, bribing police. I knew her for less than 12 hours of my life. It has been traumatic,” he said.
Aside from the civil judgment, Chia was also convicted of assault earlier for physically assaulting the friend who introduced them, Prisca Okoye. She was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail and a five-year restraining order.
High Court Judge Susie Alegre ruled in favor of Mr. Ogunkanmi, awarding him £25,000 damages and an injunction to prevent Chia from further attacking him.
The tweets were obviously malicious. There is not a scintilla of truth whatsoever in the libelous tweets,” adjudicated the judge.
Even though Ogunkanmi originally requested £120,000, the court invoked limited evidence of reputational harm in the UK and relatively superficial online penetration as grounds for awarding the lesser sum.
But Ogunkanmi described himself as relieved: “You can lose your family, job, and life through false claims. Social media companies need to do better.”
