Defamation, in law, is the act of communicating false statements
about a person that result in damage to that person's
reputation.
A defamatory statement is one which tends to lower a person in
the estimation of other members of the society; or to expose him to
hatred, contempt or ridicule; Or to cause other persons to shun or
avoid him or her ; or to discredit a person's office, trade or
profession; or to injure financial credit
The Nigerian Courts have defined defamation as any written or
printed article published of and concerning a person without lawful
justification or excuse and tending to expose him to public
contempt, scorn, obloquy, ridicule, shame or disgrace, or intending
to induce an evil opinion of him in the mind of right thinking
persons, or injure him in his profession, occupation or trade is
libelous and actionable, whatever the intention of the writer may
have been. The word need not necessarily impute actual
disgraceful conduct to the
