The mother of President Irfaan Ali, Bibi Neshaw Ali, has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in Canada against international social media company, META, Facebook and Guyanese social media commentator Melissa Atwell aka “Melly Mel” over statements published on the platform earlier this year allegedly by Ms. Atwell.

Some of those statements made reference to allegations of corruption that allegedly involved the President’s mother. The statements were reportedly made initially in a separate television news interview by a businessman.

In the lawsuit seen by News Source, Mrs. Ali contends that the defendants have committed libel against her on multiple occasions, affecting her directly, as well as her children and extended family.

Through her Attorney, Selwyn Pieters, Mrs Ali detailed in her lawsuit that on multiple occasions in August, 2025, there were several publications on the Facebook platform by Ms. Atwell, alleging that she is involved in corruption and would get drawbacks from Government contracts.

Mrs. Ali stated that she was referred to as “Gangsta Granny”, in many of the statements on social media.

Mrs. Ali, who is also a Canadian citizen, noted in her filings, that she filed the matter in the Canada-based Court because it was there that she suffered the damages. 

“The damage caused to the Plaintiff is a direct result of the Defendants’ business activities in the Province of Ontario, which allowed the libelous publications to be accessible to any person in Ontario with an electronic device which account access Facebook. Accordingly, it is in the interest of Justice that this honourable Court exercise jurisdiction over this litigation,” Mrs. Ali said in court papers. 

Mrs. Ali said the words published against her, both in the video and written formats, were false and defamatory and implied that she participates in corruption for the benefit of her son, who is the President of Guyana, accepts bribes on behalf of her son, and engages in coercing contractors for kickbacks.

Ali stated that the defendants should have known that the statement made would have been widely publicized and should have conducted their due diligence before publishing the statements which she said were libelous. 

“Due to the seriousness of the allegations against Bibi which include claims that she was coercing contractors to pay per bribes or kickbacks of 5% of contracts for the benefit of the President of Guyana, the defendants had a duty to thoroughly research, investigate and scrutinize the veracity of Junior Baksh comments before publishing them. The defendants also had a duty to report information of which they were aware or could reasonably ascertain that was inconsistent with or raised questions about Baksh’s allegations,” the lawsuit stated. 

Mrs. Ali told stated in Court papers that she has decades long service as an educator and is regarded as an upstanding citizen, both in Guyana and Canada. She noted that the defendants were reckless and irresponsible in their publication which caused her harm. 

She noted that even the businessman, who made the allegations in a video recording had no direct or personal knowledge of her, and was relying on “hearsay”. . 

Mrs. Ali said she suffered physical, emotional and psychological harm as well as anxiety, stress and mental anguish as result of the incident.

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