LAGOS, Nigeria — Ezra Olubi, the former chief technology officer and co-founder of the Nigerian fintech powerhouse Paystack, has initiated a defamation claim against a prominent investigative journalist
This move marks his first major legal counteroffensive since his abrupt ousting from the company late last year.
In a pre-action notice delivered on Monday, lawyers for Mr. Olubi demanded 140 million naira — approximately $100,000 — in damages from the journalist, David Hundeyin, over a series of posts on the social media platform X.
The demand follows a period of relative silence from Mr. Olubi, whose career at the forefront of African technology was upended in November by a scandal involving decade-old social media posts and allegations of personal misconduct.
Comparisons with Diddy
The legal notice, which Mr. Hundeyin shared publicly on his own social media account, centers on posts from December in which the journalist drew explicit comparisons between Mr. Olubi and the disgraced American music mogul Sean Combs (aka P.Diddy).
Mr. Hundeyin alleged that Mr. Olubi shared a “broken childhood,” a “God complex,” and “the same sexual perversion” as Mr. Combs, and further speculated that Mr. Olubi was a “drug addict.”
Mr. Olubi’s legal team characterized the statements as “untrue and unsubstantiated,” designed to portray their client as “dangerous” and “egotistical.”
Termination from Paystack
Mr. Olubi, known for his eccentric personal style and technical prowess, was a central figure in that success story.
However, the celebratory narrative fractured in November 2025. Paystack suspended and then terminated Mr. Olubi after the viral resurfacing of explicit and disturbing tweets he had posted years earlier. The company at the time cited “significant negative reputational damage” as the grounds for his dismissal.
Mr. Olubi has contested the legality of his firing, arguing in a blog post that the board acted before an independent investigation into separate workplace misconduct claims was completed. He described the process as a “clear contravention” of corporate policy.
Next Steps for Lawsuit
The current legal demand gives Mr. Hundeyin seven days to delete the posts and issue a formal apology. Failure to do so, the letter states, will result in a lawsuit in the Lagos State High Court.
Mr. Hundeyin, known for his adversarial style of journalism and a large digital following, responded to the legal notice with a defiant, expletive-laden email, signaling that the dispute is unlikely to be settled quietly.
For Mr. Olubi, the lawsuit appears to be an attempt to reclaim a narrative that, for the past two months, has been written almost entirely by his detractors.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
