Vice President Osinbajo has written to the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police, seeking a criminal defamation action against an alleged serial fake news peddler, identified as Mr Jackson Ude.
The move comes after the said Jackson Ude was reported to have released a report on his personal social media handles, alleging that the embattled former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mr Ibrahim Magu, allegedly embezzled over N39billion and gave Vice President Yemi Osinbajo the sum of N4billion. He alleged that the Vice President was given the said amount, after he allegedly gave Mr Magu instructions to release some of the recovered loots.
Although the Vice President had denied the allegation through a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, he is now seeking the arrest and prosecution of Mr Ude for criminal defamation.
The Vice President in a letter released on Thursday 9th July 2020, said he is seeking a criminal defamation against the said blogger. The letter was released through his lawyers, Bayo Osipitan & co to the IGP.
In the letter, the Vice President through his representatives described the publication as malicious tweets that were shared by Jackson Ude on his twitter account, which is a public platform, with over forty-six thousand followers.
The letter also claimed that some of the tweets have been retweeted some hundreds of times, as at the time of writing the petition.
“In addition, the false allegation have elicited responses targeted at the Vice President ranging from shock, outrage to comments that cast aspersion on the integrity of the Vice President,” it said.
The Vice President stated further that the tweets and reactions have also been circulated widely on other social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as other online websites, including Newsreel with the caption “EFCC PROBE: VIP Oinsbajo Allegedly Indicted Over N4billion Recovered Loot Diversion” also available on Youtube, the Vice President claimed.
“Our instruction is that the above statement published by Mr Ude are false in a very material respect and same are designed to injure the reputation of our client. Copies of the publications are hereby attached for ease of reference and necessary investigation.
These vicious and malicious publications are meant to achieve one objective only, to represent to his readership and others (Nigerians and foreigners) that our Client is a dishonest and disloyal public officer and consequently unfit for the position of Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he is occupying.
We are of the view that unless an action for criminal defamation is commenced against the said Mr Jackson Ude, he will continue to use his social media platform to publish material that are false and criminally defamatory of our client’s reputation.
In view of the above, we humbly request that you cause the above allegations, made against our client to be investigated and if the suggested investigation confirms our complaint of the falsehood of these allegations, to initiate criminal proceedings pursuant to the provisions of sections 391-395 of the penal code act for criminal defamation against the said Jackson Ude,” the letter added.