Online News Portal, Premium Times has replied the Letter written by The
Nigerian Army threatening to sue them for Posting Malicious and Defamatory
publications
against the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, a Lieutenant
General, and the army’s counter-insurgency operation in the north-east of the
country.
The medium pointedly told the Army and their high command that they
should expect neither a retraction nor apologies.
In other words, Premium Times stands by its story.
The reports, as Premium Times puts it, were those on the planned
invitation of Mr. Buratai by the Code of Conduct Bureau for asset verification,
disappearance of a high number of soldiers after a Boko Haram attack and an
investigation detailing how soldiers allegedly killed a kidnapped pastor and
labeled him a kidnapper.
The army, in its letter of 22 December 2016, described the reports as
“false,” “unsubstantiated,” and “unprofessional.” “Despite the fact that your
unprofessional publications are injurious to the personality of the leadership
of the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Army as a whole, it may interest you to
know that your attempts have failed woefully to malign and impugn the
hard-earned character of the Chief of Army Staff and the Nigerian Army,” the
letter said.
Worse still, the Army alleged that “ these stories published without
reference to the Nigerian Army in order to have a balance, have without doubt
exposed your deep hatred for the leadership of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian
Army as a service and the Nigerian nation for undisclosed reasons. It is
submitted that your unprofessional one sided and unprovoked attacks on the
Nigerian Army and its leadership, especially with regards to its operation in
the Country have confirmed your unalloyed loyalty to the terrorist cause.
The letter therefore ordered PREMIUM TIMES to retract the said
publications and apologise to Mr. Buratai and the Nigerian Army.
However, Premium Times, through its lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, wrote:
“Our clients hereby state unequivocally that there is no truth whatsoever
in any of the claims you made in your said letter. Our clients do not have any
hatred, deep or shallow, for anyone in the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Army as
an institution, or indeed the Nigerian State. Our clients have no loyalty to
any terrorists’ cause or to any terrorist organization, including Boko Haram.
Our clients’ stories were well checked, and their procedure was professional.
Our clients therefore will not retract their stories and will not tender
reserved or unreserved apology as demanded by you and your principals.
Published below are the letter by the Army and Premium Times’s reply:
Major General I. M Alkali,
Headquarters,
Nigerian Army,
Ministry of Defence,
Area 7, Gark.i
PMB 239, Abuja, FCT.
E-mail : ahq.doaa@army.mil.org
Dear Major-General I.M Alkali,
RE: REQUEST FOR THE RETRACTION OF THE UNAUTHORIZED FALSE LIBELOUS AND
DEFAMATORY PUBLICATION BY PREMIUM TIMES AGAINST THE PERSON OF LIEUTENANT
GENERAL T Y BURATAI THE CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF AND WITHDRAWAL OF UNAUTHORIZED
FALSE PUBLICATIONS ON NIGERIAN ARMY OPERATIONS.
We act as Solicitors to Premium Times Services Limited, owner and
publisher of Premium Times, the leading online newspaper in Nigeria; Mr. Dapo
Olorunyomi, the Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, Premium Times Services
Limited; and the members of staff of Premium Times Services Limited, and
journalists working with Premium Times, including Evelyn Okakwu and Samuel
Ogundipe ( all, jointly hereinafter referred to as “ our clients” ) on whose
behalf and instructions we write this letter.
Your Letter under reference, Reference No.AHQ DOAA/G1/300/200 of 22nd
December 2016, addressed to Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, Premium
Times Services Limited has been passed to us. We have been fully briefed in
respect of the grave and weighty allegations contained in the letter, and we
hereby make the following representations on behalf of our clients.
1. The said letter was written for and on behalf of the Chief of Army
Staff, General T.Y Buratai, “the complainant”, whom we assume delegated the
power to write the letter to you.
2. The said letter, which, for ease of reference, and for a proper
appreciation of its purports, is hereunder reproduced in full, complains about
the stories published in Premium Times. The letter states:
22nd December, 2016
AHQ DOAA/GI/300/200
Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi
The Editor -in- Chief/Managing Director
Premium Times Services Limited
53 Mambolo Street
Zone 2
Wuse
Abuja
REQUEST FOR THE RETRACTION OF THE UNAUTHORIZED FALSE LIBELOUS AND
DEFAMATORY PUBLICATION BY PREMIUM TIMES AGAINST THE PERSON OF LIEUTENANT
GENERAL TY BURATAI THE CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF AND WITHDRAWAL OF UNAUTHORIZED FALSE
PUBLICATIONS ON NIGERIAN ARMY OPERATIONS.
1. The Nigerian Army has observed with dismay the unwarranted serial
provocative, unauthorised, libelous and defamatory publications against the
person of Lieutenant General T.Y Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian
Army and Nigerian Army counter insurgency operations in the North East by your
online newspaper, The Premium Times. The latest in series of offensive
publications was written by Evelyn Okakwu on 12 December, 2016 alleging that
the Chief of Army Staff in the person of Lieutenant General T.Y, Buratai was to
appear before the Code Conduct of Bureau over false asset declaration. Other
similarly false, publications include the one captioned: “Exclusive: 83
Nigerian Soldiers still missing days after Boko Haram attack” written by Samuel
Ogundipe on 21 October, 2016. As if that is not enough, on 19 November, 2016,
there was another false and unsubstantiated story published in your newspaper
alleging that the Nigerian Army killed a pastor and labeled him a militant
among numerous unprofessional publications.
2. These stories published without reference to the Nigerian Army in
order to have a balance, have without doubt exposed your deep hatred for the
leadership of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Army as a service and the
Nigerian nation for undisclosed reasons. It is submitted that your
unprofessional one sided and unprovoked attacks on the Nigerian Army and its
leadership, especially with regards to its operation in the Country have
confirmed your unalloyed loyalty to the terrorist cause.
3. It is obvious that the Nigerian Army have always cooperated and worked
in harmony with the press. Let it be known that the Code of Conduct Bureau
through their letters dated 11 July and 29 September, 2016 cleared the Chief of
Army Staff of false asset declaration. Equally, there was no time that 83
Nigerian army soldiers were missing as a result of Boko Haram attack. Nor did
Nigerian army kill a pastor and labeled him a militant. One then wonders where
your organisation got your false stories from. Despite the fact that your
unprofessional publications are injurious to the personality of the leadership
of the Nigerian army and the Nigerian army as a whole, it may interest you to
know that your attempt have failed woefully to malign and impugn the hard earned
good character of the Chief of Army Staff and the Nigerian Army.
4. In view of the foregoing, you are hereby advised to immediately
retract the said unauthorized false, libelous and malicious stories against the
person of Lieutenant General T.Y Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff and withdraw
all false and unauthorized publications on the Nigerian army operations as
published by your online medium, the Premium Times forthwith. Your retraction
should be done in at least 3 national dailies and in online newspapers for 3
days consecutively from 29 – 31 December, 2016. You are to also publish an
apology to the Chief of Army staff and the Nigerian Army in 3 Nigerian
newspapers and online publications. Failure to retract and withdraw the said
publications by Premium Times services Limited on or before 31 December, 2016.
The Nigerian Army Team of Lawyers will be instructed to proceed against you in
court.
5. Please accept the warm assurances of the Chief of Army Staffs highest
esteem.
I.M Alkali
Major General
for: Chief of Army Staff
cc:
Chief of Army Staff
3. Whilst our clients can understand your disappointment that Premium
Times published reports which you did not find favourable to the Nigerian Army,
which you are at liberty to deny if you had exercised the right of reply on
behalf of your principals, by writing a rejoinder in Premium Times, or by using
other news media to so do, our clients, hard as they have tried, cannot
understand why you used that letter to level very grave accusations against
them, brazenly threaten them, and violate or attempt to violate their rights to
life, dignity of the human person, personal liberty and freedom of expression
and the press, respectively guaranteed by Sections 33, 34, 35 and 39 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and relevant
international human rights protecting instruments.
4. In case you did not, while penning your letter, measure the words
therein deployed or weigh carefully the meanings, import and intendments of the
words used in the allegations contained therein, we draw your attention to the
second paragraph of your letter which alleged that “ these stories published
without reference to the Nigerian Army in order to have a balance, have without
doubt exposed your deep hatred for the leadership of the Nigerian Army, the
Nigerian Army as a service and the Nigerian nation for undisclosed reasons. It
is submitted that your unprofessional one sided and unprovoked attacks on the
Nigerian Army and its leadership, especially with regards to its operation in
the Country have confirmed your unalloyed loyalty to the terrorist cause.
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5. Our clients hereby state unequivocally that there is no truth
whatsoever in any of the claims you made in your said letter. Our clients do
not have any hatred, deep or shallow, for anyone in the Nigerian Army, the
Nigerian Army as an institution, or indeed the Nigerian State. Our clients have
no loyalty to any terrorists’ cause or to any terrorist organization, including
Boko Haram. Our clients’ stories were well checked, and their procedure was
professional. Our clients therefore will not retract their stories and will not
tender reserved or unreserved apology as demanded by you and your principals.
6. Our clients discharge their journalistic duties without any bias, fear
or favour. They recognize and respect the right of reply by the readers of
Premium Times or anyone who may be affected by stories published in and by
Premium Times. Our clients have a commitment to continue to do so within the
confines of the laws of Nigeria, and according to international best
journalistic practices.
7. By the contents of your letter, you and the authority for whom you
wrote your letter have played the role of the complainant, and the judge in
your own cause. More worryingly, you and the said authority have reached
conclusions which are both chilling and frightening. Through your letter, you
now seek a conviction which plays to the notion of your own power and worth. By
your letter you have threatened the lives of our clients, and our clients are
thus obliged to put the Nigerian public and the international community on
notice that should any harm come to them, you, the Chief of Army Staff and the
Nigerian Army should be held accountable.
8. Given your position in the Nigerian Army and your claim that your
letter was written on behalf of the Nigerian Army and its leadership, our
Clients are of the clear view that your threats have come from the very top of
the Nigerian Army.
9. Our Clients hope that the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff, the
Ministry of Defence and the Minister of Defence, and indeed the Federal Government
of Nigeria are aware of this letter from you and the grave implications of the
letter.
Sir, may we declare to you that the assertions and the declarations in
your letter have very grave implications.
First, the chilling threat that you have subjected our clients to shows a
disregard for the due process which includes the constitutionally entrenched
control of the military by civilian authorities, and equally respect of freedom
of the Press. It is our view that all working journalists and news outlets are
entitled to some protection from public officers, especially of the military
and security agencies who are charged with the duty to secure and protect
Nigeria and Nigerians, their lives and property, and maintain law and order,
but who often, because of the uniqueness of that duty and for reason of the
exclusive bearing of arms and control of our commonly owned ordinance, assume
very erroneously that they are above the law.
Second, the penchant of public officers to flippantly, arrogantly and
ignorantly label media reports and stories and journalists “unprofessional”
once they are affected by media reports and stories must be deprecated with
decorous pungency. Sir, you are not in any position at all to teach our clients
about media professionalism, ethics and standards. It really can be
exasperating and disconcerting to see public officers condescendingly castigate
journalists, many of whom are not only internationally acclaimed and celebrated
but who also have up to forty years of practice as journalists under their
belts.
Third, we must also refute the false assumption that our military men,
exclusively, are an epitome of patriotism and national sacrifice, and that they
love Nigeria more than civilians do. Sir, the Nigerian Army of which you spoke
so glowingly is an heir to a military that unpatriotically subverted, many
times, constitutional governance in Nigeria, plunged Nigeria into a three year
internecine civil war, committed unspeakable rights violations against the
Nigerian people and thwarted the efforts of Nigerians to restore democratic
governance to Nigeria. The Nigerian Media, if you must be reminded, played a
frontline role and suffered gross human rights violations, perpetrated by the
military, in the struggle to rid Nigeria of military dictatorship. During the
struggle for Nigeria’s independence, the Nigerian Media carried on its
shoulders the anti-colonial agitations of the nationalists movement. Our
clients, therefore, totally reject your claim that they hate Nigeria, their
country. The Nigerian Army does not love Nigeria more than Nigerians love
themselves. An armed force of less than three hundred thousand officers and men
cannot claim to love Nigeria, a country of over one hundred and eighty million
people, more than the Nigerian civil population.
Even under the current civil government, the officers and men of the
Nigerian Army continue to carry out acts that threaten the survival of
democratic governance, they trumpet they are sworn to protect. The ignoble
roles played by officers and men of the Nigerian Army in the Ekiti State
Governorship Election in 2014; the insertion of the Nigerian Army in the
partisan allegation that the WASC School Certificate of our President,
Muhammadu Buhari, then a candidate, could not be found in the Nigerian Army’s
records during the 2015 electioneering campaigns; the seizure and confiscation
of newspapers nationwide during the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan by men and
officers of the Nigerian Army under the guise of looking for terrorist
elements; the stealing of humongous sums from the budget of the military,
meant, in part, for the counter-insurgency operation in the North East, by
heads of the Nigerian Armed Forces, some of whom are now on trial for
corruption and money laundering offences, but who more appropriately ought to
have been charged with the offence of treachery punishable with death for
subverting and undermining the capacity of the Nigerian State to levy war; and
the recent killings that attended the insistence on right of way by the Nigerian
Army against the adherents of the Shiite Islamic Sect in Zaria, in which
hundreds of civilians lost their lives, are cases in point. A Nigerian Army
that carries out such acts that not only violate the human rights of the
citizens, but also subvert democracy and the rule of law cannot lay a claim to
patriotism that is superior to the patriotism of the Nigerian media.
We state that just as the Nigerian Armed Forces are assigned a role to
play in our national life under Sections 217 and 218 of the Constitution, so is
the mass media assigned a role under Section 22 of the same Constitution which,
in stipulating the obligation of the mass media, provides that “ the press,
radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be
free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold
the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.”
Although you ended your letter in a civil manner, and perfectly within
your right, by demanding a retraction of the stories published by our clients,
and an apology to be published in both national online and print media, failing
which you and your principals may have recourse to a civil action, the
allegations and threats contained in your letter are too grave and serious to
be overlooked.
The right of our clients to practice their profession and publish the
stories you are complaining about is guaranteed under the Constitution, which
in Section 39 (1&2) provides that “ every person shall be entitled to
freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart ideas and information without interference; and that without prejudice
to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, every person shall be
entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of
information, ideas and opinions”. It is our firm view that this right and the
other above-listed rights of our clients have been, are being and are about to
be breached by the threats issued to and the terrorist tags placed on our
clients by your letter.
You should know that your wild allegations against our clients implicate
the invocation, against our clients, of Section 4 of the Terrorism (Prevention)
Act, No. 10,2011, which prescribes a maximum prison term of 20 years for any
person convicted of knowingly, in any manner, soliciting or rendering support
for an act of terrorism or a proscribed terrorist organization, and the death
penalty where death results from such solicitation or rendering of support. And
you should also have realized that your allegations imputed, on the part of our
clients, the commission of treasonable offences and aiding the enemy under our
criminal law.
In the circumstances, we hereby demand that you write a letter of
withdrawal of these threats and allegations, to our clients, wherein you are to
assure them of their safety and protection by the security and law enforcement
agencies in Nigeria, in particular, the Nigerian Army. The letter, to be
addressed to Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer,
Premium Times Services Limited must be received within seven (7) working days
of delivery of this letter to you
TAKE NOTICE that should you fail, refuse or neglect to write and deliver
the above letter as demanded, our clients will not hesitate to institute a
legal action against you, your principals, the Nigerian Army and the Federal
Government of Nigeria, to enforce their fundamental rights under the
Constitution.
Kindly accept the assurances of our highest regards.
Yours faithfully,
Jiti Ogunye, Esq;
Principal Solicitor & Counsel
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