Washington
21 September 2026
A Washington lobbyist has filed an amended federal complaint that adds a Nigerian television network, a New York news agency and a prominent Nigerian journalist to a defamation action already pending against Sahara Reporters and one of its writers.
Dr Karl Von Batten, managing partner of the lobbying firm Von Batten Montague York LC, lodged the First Amended Complaint today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Court papers show the filing was received by the clerk of the district and bankruptcy courts on 21 September 2026. The action is listed as Von Batten versus Sahara Reporters Media Group Inc and others, civil action number 126cv03209.
The original claim, filed earlier this month, named Sahara Reporters Media Group Inc, a New York corporation that publishes Sahara Reporters, and Ademola Wasiu Olalekan Bello. The amended pleading now also names Laolu Akande, individually and trading as Empowered Newswire, and Channels Incorporated Limited, a Nigerian company that broadcasts as Channels Television.
Dr Von Batten is proceeding pro se at this stage. The complaint seeks relief for defamation, libel per se and defamation by implication. The firm’s public statement said the new defendants were added because of later publication and broadcast of what it called numerous false statements about Dr Von Batten.
According to the amended complaint, the dispute began with an article dated 14 September 2026, written by Mr Bello and published by Sahara Reporters. The piece was titled “The Talented Mr Karl Marx Von Batten: US Lobbyist Allegedly Paid $1.2 Million By Atiku Abubakar, Using Multiple Aliases And Fabricated Academic Credentials.” The pleading says the article went beyond political criticism and set out purported factual conclusions about the plaintiff’s identity, background and credentials.
The firm later said it watched with “shock and astonishment” as further comments were made on television after the first claim had already been filed. On 19 September it announced that it would amend the complaint to include Mr Akande, Empowered Newswire and Channels Television. A Channels Television programme, Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, had carried a segment examining Dr Von Batten’s record.
In a statement issued with today’s filing, Von Batten Montague York LC said the allegations would now be tested through the United States federal judicial process. “The defendants will have their opportunity to respond, and we look forward to addressing these matters in federal court, where facts are established by evidence, not repetition, political connections, or social media attacks,” the statement said.
The original action sought $26 million in damages. Dr Von Batten has argued that the publications form part of a coordinated effort to discredit him and to interfere with work by his firm to obtain public release of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration records linked to historical drug trafficking allegations involving Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. Those records are already the subject of separate freedom of information litigation in Washington.
Dr Von Batten’s firm is retained by former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar under a Foreign Agents Registration Act contract reported at $1.2 million a year. The engagement, filed with the United States Department of Justice, includes lobbying and government affairs work in Washington and an instruction to counter Nigerian government narratives in the United States. Mr Abubakar is widely regarded as a possible contender in Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.
Nigerian outlets and commentators have published competing accounts of Dr Von Batten’s name, nationality, academic record and earlier court history. Those publications remain contested. The amended complaint treats the disputed statements as false and defamatory. None of the claims in the civil action has yet been proved in court.
Sahara Reporters, Mr Bello, Mr Akande, Empowered Newswire and Channels Television had not issued a detailed public response to the amended filing at the time of writing. The defendants will be entitled to answer the complaint, to seek dismissal, and to put the plaintiff to proof. Sahara Reporters has previously defeated or seen dismissed other defamation actions in United States and Nigerian courts, including a Texas case this year that was thrown out for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Mr Akande is a former spokesman in the office of Nigeria’s vice president and now hosts Inside Sources on Channels Television. He also serves as editor in chief of Empowered Newswire, an agency he founded in New York. Channels Television is one of Nigeria’s best known private news broadcasters.
Service of the original summons on Sahara Reporters and Mr Bello was still being pursued last week. The firm said it had asked the defendants not to evade service and advised them to instruct qualified United States counsel. It added that the case would be governed by United States law, United States rules of evidence and a United States federal court.
The filing places a transatlantic political quarrel, a lobbying contract and a dispute over published statements inside a single civil docket in Washington. What remains to be decided is not the volume of commentary already in circulation, but whether the plaintiff can prove, on admissible evidence, that the named defendants published false statements of fact that injured his reputation.
By A.Ikechukwu – Legal Editor
