Nigeria Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has threatened to sue Independent Newspaper, published in Lagos, for libel if within the nex seven days, starting from today, Monday, it did not retract an alleged damaging publication about him.
Lai Mohammed, through his lawyer, Femi Falana, emphasized that if the newspaper did not retract the alleged damaging publication, he would sue it “with a view to restoring his reputation which your reckless publication has damaged.”
The letter, signed by Oludare Falana, reads:
The Executive Editor,
Independent Newspaper,
Block 5, Plot 7D, WEMPCO Road,
Ogba, Ikeja,
Lagos.
We are counsel to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on whose behalf and instructions we write this letter.
Our attention has been drawn to your highly libelous statement published and circulated in Volume 14, No. 208 of the 15th of September, 2016 Edition of your newspaper with the screaming headline “’CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ CAMPAIGN GULPS N3.4BN”. You also claimed, in the aforesaid publication, albeit falsely, that the “CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME” launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, 8th September, 2016 was stolen by our client.
Having damaged our client’s hard-earned reputation by your reckless action, we have his instruction to demand a retraction of your libelous publication with 7 days of the receipt of this letter.
TAKE NOTICE that if you fail or refuse to accede to our client’s demands, we have his instruction to sue you with a view to restoring his reputation which your reckless publication has damaged. [myad]
