Vanguard apologises to Osinbajo, retracts story

Vanguard newspaper newspaper has apologised to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for publishing a story that lacks factual substance.

The newspaper’s response comes after Prof. Osinbajo had tweeted that he was ready to put away his constitutional immunity to pursue legal actions against the author of the story, Timi Frank.

In its retraction and apology to the Vice President, Vanguard noted that it holds him in high esteem and is therefore sorry for publishing the report.

“On our website publication of Monday, September 23, 2019 we published a story titled “N90bn FIRS Election Fund: Osinbajo’s problem, not 2023 politics.” We have since discovered that the story lacks factual substance and we hereby retract it in its entirety.”

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“We tender our profound apology to Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on whom the story touches directly and the All Progressives Congress, APC for any inconvenience or embarrassment the publication has occasioned them. We hold Professor Osinbajo, SAN in the highest esteem.”

Earlier, the Vice President had explained his reasons to pursue legal actions.

“In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals.

“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique have been making the social media rounds anonymously.

“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.”

“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood.”