Timi Frank, who some people call an activist and a former Deputy National publicity Secretary of the APC, has a penchant of drawing attention to himself by making outlandish allegations.
Now, a close ally of Atiku Abubakar, Timi, in a press statement, asked president Buhari to call vice president Osinbajo to order for allegedly using State forces to suppress the media and free speech.
He accused Osinbajo of “using the judiciary and security agencies to intimidate, harass and coerce journalists and media houses”.
His words: “Osinbajo is known for using operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), Police and the courts to threaten journalists whenever stories concerning allegations of abuse of office are published. This is the height of impunity and a flagrant abuse of office by the Vice president, which is impeachable”.
I went through the whole press statement and was carefully looking for the particulars of where the VP used the DSS and security forces against the press and l couldn’t find any.
For the purpose of emphasis, I’m a defender of press freedom and l have done this consistently for over three decades. I have never shied away from criticizing anybody in government that tries to abridge press freedom and l won’t start now, not even if done by Osinbajo.
This same Timi Frank has, in the past couple of months, made spurious, incendiary and unsubstantiated allegations against the VP but there was never an instance in which the VP detailed the DSS or the police to arrest him. So, in what way has the VP used the security forces to intimidate the press? He refused to give details because there is none.
Any decent and rational leader who feels defamed, has the recourse to law as his safety valve. To the best of my knowledge, each time he felt defamed, Osinbajo briefed his lawyer to take action or asked the IGP to investigate criminal complaints made against him.
I would have thought that was the decent thing to do, particularly for someone who is a co-author of the book Nigeria Media Law, which he co-authored many years ago with Prof. P. K. Fogam of the University of Lagos.
Perhaps, l should give Timi Frank some background to Osinbajo’s respect for the press.
Sometimes in 2002, as the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Lagos State, Osinbajo was the prosecutor of Major Hamzat Al Mustapha, General Bamaiyi and others over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
In their contrived plans to delay the trial, the defendants in the open court, accused the presiding justice, Ade Alabi, of allegedly demanding $10 million bribe before they could be granted bail. Their plan was to make the judge recuse himself, so that the case could start de novo.
Their counsel, Mike Okoye, went further to call a press conference on January 4, 2002, repeating same allegation. The spurious allegations were published by the press and Mr Okoye was charged to court for criminal contempt.
He was charged before Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, then of Lagos High Court (now a Justice of the Supreme Court). Okoye profusely apologized for the false allegation and was ordered to publish his apology in five newspapers.
After the case was disposed off, l asked prof. Osinbajo why he didn’t charge the newspapers which published the false allegation, along with Okoye. He retorted that he could have done so but was not after the newspapers but the person who made the false allegations, adding that from there, the newspapers would learn some lessons to avoid such mistakes in future.
What does this say of Osinbajo? He had all the powers to deal with the newspapers but refused. Does that show the mindset of someone who has the tendency to be anti-press freedom?
In 1975, when General Murtala Mohammed was the military Head of State, Dr Obarogie Ohanbamu, in his monthly publication, accused the Head of State of corruption. Murtala did not cause him to be arrested; he filed defamation suit against Ohanbamu and elected to enter the witness box to give evidence. That was the decent thing to do. Eventually, Ohanbamu realized his mistake and apologized.
On May 8, 1980, the National Concord published a story with the headline – “Onabanjo’s N250,000 UK fun – governor spends leave abroad at government expense… and tongues wag over expenditure”, wherein the newspaper accused the then civilian Ogun state Governor, Chief Bisi Onabanjo of using State resources to frolic abroad.
Chief Onabanjo instituted a libel suit against the newspaper, claiming N1 million as damages.
The Governor’s grouse was that the story depicted him as guilty of abuse of office, that he improperly diverted public funds for the personal pleasure of himself and members of his family and that he wasted public funds on ostentatious and flamboyant lifestyle.
At the end of the hearing, the court found the newspaper liable and awarded N250,000 as damages against the newspaper.
The above examples are for the benefit of Timi Frank – how public officers engaged in decent, legal approach to exculpate themselves from false allegations, instead of resorting to the use of state power to muzzle the press.
A public officer, who has been wrongfully accused, has the liberty to seek legal redress, which Osinbajo, Onabanjo and Murtala Mohammed did by briefing their lawyers, instead of unleashing state security apparatus. How this translates to muzzling the press by the VP can only be a product of someone inured in red herring.
Richard Akinola is a renowned lawyer and journalist
