Sunday Dare, minister of youth and sports development, has
petitioned Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, to investigate Sylvanus
Ofekun, a Kiss FM reporter, for alleged criminal defamation.
The petition, which was signed and served on Tuesday by
Festus Keyamo’s chamber on behalf of the minister, also said that Ofekun’s
reportage is capable of threatening national security.
The petition stated that “Sleeky Sly”, as the reporter with
Kiss FM in Abuja is popularly called, allegedly reported that the minister was
a daily benefactor of the Lagos Concession Company (LCC), operator of the Lekki
tollgate, which has been at the center of the #EndSARS protests.
“Our Client was therefore surprised when one Mr Sylvanus
Ofokun also known as Sleeky Sly published unfounded and baseless allegations of
corruption against our client through direct reference and innuendo. Mr
Sylvanus Ofekun is a sports journalist who currently plies his trade with Kiss
FM Radio Station, Abuja,” the petition read.
“The summary of the allegations was to the effect that our
client was receiving constant revenues from the Lagos Concession Company (LCC)
who are the managers of the Lekki Tollgate.
“Our client was therefore alleged to have deployed
governmental resources to reopen the Tollgate for personal profit. According to
the publication, evidence of our client’s receipt of funds from LCC could be
found in bank statements which were attached. A cursory look at the said bank
statements will show that the transactions contained therein are between LCC
and Loatsad Media and our client’s name did not appear in any of the
transactions.
“The facts as can be gleaned from the public records available
at the relevant government agencies that our client has since 2017 relinquished
all interests he had at Loatsad Promomedia Limited (as it was then known as)
and stepped down from its Board of Directors. It is therefore clear that not
only were the allegations false, they were published with malice aforethought
with the intent to disparage our client.
“The allegations made by Mr Sylvanus Ofekun in their natural
and ordinary significance meant or were understood to mean. (I) That our client
is a violator of Nigeria’s laws who engages in other businesses while occupying
public office contrary to the code of conduct for public officers. (II) That
our client is a corrupt leader who deploys state resources for personal
benefits (III)That our client is of low morals and pretends to support the
cause of the youths while truly satisfying his private desires.
“The above allegations are all patently false and were
published against our client by the said Mr Sylvanus Ofekun ostensibly to
discredit our client’s great work among the youths. These false and invidious
allegations were made on the social media platforms of Mr Sylvanus Ofekun for
the purpose of propagating these defamatory materials to the youth who draw
their information from social media thereby exposing our client to hatred,
contempt and ridicule.”
The petition also urged the IGP to not just investigate
Ofekun but also “other media houses and blogs including The Daily Gazette have
latched on to this blatantly false story and have propagated these allegations
to the populace.”
“The consequence of the publications is that young men and
women, who have hitherto considered our client as their representative and
mouthpiece, now view our client with suspicion and distrust,” it added.
“The larger objective of the actions of Mr Sylvanus Ofekun
is to place our client at a position where he can no longer perform his
mediatory roles with respect to the #EndSars Protests thereby exarcebating an
already fragile situation. The implication of this is that Mr Sylvanus Ofekun’s
actions not only affect our client’s reputation but is capable of endangering
national security and causing a breach of the peace.
“Section 373 of the Criminal Code prohibits the publication
of any material likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him
to hatred, contempt or ridicule or likely to damage any person in his
profession or trade by injury to his reputation. Undoubtedly, these
publications were targeted at injuring the reputation of our Client and we have
his instructions to respectfully invite you to investigate the subject matter
of this petition with the aim of prosecuting anyone found culpable. Our client
is concerned that if actions such as that of Mr Sylvanus Ofekun go unchecked,
it could embolden like-minded individuals to carry out campaigns of calumny
against outstanding members of society. These individuals, who may not exercise
our client’s restraint, could resort to self-help and society could degenerate
to anarchy.”
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