SEGUN OLATUNJI RESIGNS AS FIRST NEWS GENERAL EDITOR
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Editor Segun Olatunji, who was kidnapped, has resigned from FirstNews after the media outlet’s management apologized to President’s chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Olatunji stated he had decided to step down as FirstNews’ general editor in order to protect his family’s safety after spending two weeks in custody following his kidnapping by military personnel on March 15, 2024, from his Lagos home.
It was discovered that Gbajabiamila received an apology from the newspaper’s management for a recent news article that was posted on its website.
The story, written by Olatunji, was titled “How Gbajabiamila attempted to corner $30bn, 66 houses traced to Sabiu.”
The management, in a statement on Wednesday, said it found out the story contained “falsehoods and fabricated stories handed out to us as facts by a misleading source, which was highly negligent on our part and for which we deeply tender an unreserved apology to the Chief of Staff to the President.”
“As a responsible media organisation, we wish to state very categorically that we have no malicious intent towards the person of the Chief of Staff to the President or his office. Hence, our decision to tender an unreserved apology and the need to publish a retraction of the said story,” the management said.
However, following this, Olatunji, in a letter addressed to the Publisher/Managing Director, First Media Network Limited, on Wednesday, said, “In view of the latest development regarding the Gbajabiamila story and the stance of the company’s management, I hereby tender my resignation as the General Editor of First News.”
He also stated that “in no distant time, the truth will come out and then it’ll be my word against theirs.”
While appreciating the opportunity he had to work with the oragnisation, Olatunji, however, said, “I hope the management of First Media Network Limited, publishers of First News newspaper, will be magnanimous enough to fully settle the one-year outstanding salaries I am being owed, in no time.”
Olatunji, a former Kaduna State correspondent of The PUNCH, was in March bundled into a van parked outside his house situated in Iyana Odo, Abule Egba and whisked away.
The International Press Institute, Nigeria, later traced him to the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency in Abuja, where he spent two weeks and was subjected to inhumane conditions, according to the editor’s narration upon his release.
The editor regained freedom after sustained media pressure. Media stakeholders including the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria had demanded a probe into the incident which led to the DIA meeting with the Nigerian Press Organisation, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria and civil society partners.
In April, the media stakeholders said they had referred the matter to the National Media Complaints Commission adjudged as the National Media Ombudsman following the DIA’s disposition.
Their statement partly read, “After considering this disposition towards the Ombudsman, the NPO, BON and civil society partners, after reviewing the outcome of the April 14 meeting, have decided to refer the matter to the Ombudsman for adjudication. The report of the Ombudsman process would be made public.”
They said they hoped that the parties concerned would seize the opportunity to settle the matter in the interest of law, order and respect for the provisions of Nigeria’s constitution.
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