By Uche Mbah
The recent alleged apologies of Vanguard Newspapers to the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo indicates the precarious position that the Nigerian Press has found itself in the present dispensation, particularly with the advent of Online Media.
Recall that Timi Frank, former spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had released statements indicating that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was involved in a financial scandal which is causing his present travails with the presidency. Although many media houses picked on the issue, the Vanguard Newspapers published it on their front page.
The vice president, through his verified twitter handle,
@ProfOsinbajo, had threatened to waive his constitutional rights to see the end of the case. “In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals”, he said.
“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique had mostly been making the social media rounds anonymously.
“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.
“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood.”
As the Vice President, he has constitutional immunity, meaning that he can not be sued, nor can he sue. Basically, for he to waive his immunity, he will have to resign his position as the Vice president first, according to some lawyers. It is not clear whether he can unilaterally waive his immunity.
“We are solicitors to Professor Yemi Osinbanjo SAN, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (hereinafter referred to as “our client”) on whose behalf and instructions we write this letter”, the letter said.
“Our client’s attention has been drawn to your highly libelous story entitled “N90 bn FIRS election fund, Osinbanjo’s problem, not 2023 politics-Frank” recklessly published in the Vanguard newspaper edition of September 23, 2019.
In the story credited to one Comrade Timi Frank, your newspaper informed your large readership that our client’s travail “has nothing to do with 2023 but alleged mismanagement of about N90 Billion Naira (sic) released by the Federal Inland Revenue Inland Service (FIRS) to prosecute the last general elections in favour of the APC”.
The false contextual background and specific untrue and defamatory statement include the following:
“The presidency discovered how Osinbajo allegedly mismanaged N90billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
When confronted by the presidency, he confirmed to General Buhari that he indeed allegedly took N90billion from FIRS but it was used for the 2019 presidential election campaign in strategic states of the South-west.
Gen Buhari asked for a breakdown of how the money was spent and he said he gave N11 billion to Lagos state APC leader but when the said national leader and one former APC chairman were invited for an explanation, it was confirmed that Osinbajo gave only N5billion and not N11billion to Lagos state.
‘The cabal is asking to know how come they beat PDP in the South-west with less than 60,000 votes if the money was actually spent in the strategic states of the South-west as allegedly claimed.’
The activist insisted that if the information is true, Osinbajo must resign his position as Vice President, adding that such is akin to the characteristics of ‘yahoo boys.”
“It is clear that the entire publication was a vicious, wicked and reckless ploy to impugn the reputation of our client and lower him in the estimation of right thinking members of the public. Without any scintilla of evidence you deliberately gave the dubious impression that our client colluded with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to divert public funds to the tune of N90 billion to prosecute the 2019 general elections in the South west region.
‘In view of the foregoing we have our client’s firm instructions to request for the immediate retraction of the offensive and derogatory publication coupled with apology prominently published in your newspaper.
‘Take notice that if we do not receive your formal retraction and apology within 24 hours of the receipt of this letter, we shall proceed with our client’s instructions to seek legal remedies including aggravated damages in the appropriate High Court.”
But Timi Frank insisted that he is the one to be sued and not the Media house. In a release by him, he also urged the Economic and Financial crimes commission to “quickly release the reports of its earlier investigation of the activities of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) under the current leadership.”
“I understand Prof. Osinbajo, through Femi Falana has written Vanguard Newspaper, demanding for a retraction. It is a move to silence the media and those of us speaking for Nigerians. I challenge Osinbajo to sue me and not Vanguard Newspaper. I’m prepared to meet him in court whenever he is ready to do so”, he said.
“The VP should know that I can not be intimidated by his threat. We shall meet in court
“The VP is trying to intimidate everyone including the media but he has forgotten how he accused others like former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Senate President Bukola Saraki without any evidence,” Frank stated.
While urging Vanguard and other newspapers to stand firm, Frank called on the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Director of the State Security Service (DSS), Independent Corrupt Practices Offenses Commission (ICPC) to investigate his claims objectively.
“Osinbajo is trying to use his position as Vice President to intimidate me and especially the Vanguard Newspaper but he won’t succeed.
“I have also spoken with Femi Falana, the VP’s lawyer who has confirmed that he has a letter from the Vice President for me but I’m yet to receive the letter,” he stated.
The federal Inland revenue service, the organization through which the Vice President allegedly took the N90 billion in question, has already denied the story, claiming they have no such money in their account.
Meanwhile, vanguard Newspapers have retracted the story and published an appology to the Vice President as required by Femi Falana. Osinbajo allegedly also threatened to sue Google, a Social media facilitating platform.
