Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives has threatened he will commence legal action Nigerian news Agency Premium Times over publishing what they described as “libellous” material circulated by former chairman of House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
Jibrin had levelled serious allegations against Dogara, accusing the speaker of fraud up to the tune of about N40bn, a claim the speaker and his alleged accomplices have since denied stating instead that Jibrin was just sour over his lost position as chairman of Committee on Appropriation.
Since then Jibrin has disseminated information to back up his claims, information that Premium times published.
According to Premium Times, Dogara has given the paper a 7-day grace period in which to retract the story and apologise or get prosecuted. This was contained in a letter dated July 27 which was titled “Demand for Apology for a Libelous Publication Contained in the Front Page of Your Newspaper of July 26, 2016,” in which Dogara quoted excerpts of the article and claimed the publication by Premium Times had caused him “public opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule”.
Excerpts of the letter according to Premium Times said “The personal references are obviously directed at our client and amount to a very serious libel,
“Take notice that in the event of your failure/refusal to unconditionally retract your false and defamatory statements within seven (7) days of the receipt of this letter, you will have left us with no choice but to proceed with legal action against you. In that event, we will pursue all options to undo the reputational injury caused by you including a claim for aggravated and exemplary damages,”
The representative for the paper has said that they have done nothing wrong in publishing Jibrin’s information and that the threat was an attempt to stifle press freedom.
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