DASUKIGATE:
‘Sahara Reporters Lied against me, Defaming my Character in N4.8Billion Scandal‘-Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro
*Vows: ‘I Dare them, EFCC to Publish Names, Directors of Sylva Mcnamara company’
*Echoes: ‘It’s an Invincible, Misleading medium built on Fake, Contrived & Distorted News’
* Says: ‘They are in Trouble, I have Instituted Legal Cases against them in Court’
*QUOTE: “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies”-
Dorothy Allison
BY SAMSON SHOAGA/MANAGING EDITOR, GEORGIA & TOBI ADURAWA/REPORTER, ABUJA
KNOCKS, Condemnation, Opprobrium and Libel have been attracted to a news story published by Sahara Reporters in which Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, a former Minister and Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana and two of his sons, namely: Gbolahan and Babajide were derided and made to look as ‘thieves’ in the eyes of the public regarding a N4.75Billion scandal allegedly reported as proceeds of corruption linked to Office of National Security Adviser, under erstwhile Sambo Dasuki.
Clearing the air on this allegation, an obviously angry Obanikoro presently In United States reportedly absolved himself and two children from the damning reports, most traceable to ‘sources’.
In an open challenge for the world to know the truth, Obanikoro has challenged the nation’s anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the online news medium Sahara Reporters to publish the names of the directors of Sylva Mcnamara, the company alleged to have purportedly received N4.7billion payments from the Office of the National Security Adviser for non existent contract.
Obanikoro says: “Since the invincible Sahara Reporters whom I have legal cases against are at the forefront of misleading the public and defaming my person, perhaps rationalizing that I would withdraw pending suits against it, I am using this medium to challenge it and the EFCC to publish in good conscience the signatories and the names of the directors of the said company and to restate that I shall conclusively pursue this injustice and infringements to a logical end.
“Associating my sons to the Sylva McNamara account that allegedly received funds from the office of the embattled National security Adviser is highly preposterous and unthinkable.”
Going by reports, Sylva Mcnamara allegedly had two of Obanikoro’s sons: Gbolahan and Babajide on its board-and that was what raised questions.
Speaking through a media aide, Jonathan Eze, the former minister described Sahara Reports as: “Medium with information as vague, contrived and distorted news aimed at deceiving Nigerians”. Eze lamented that there is nowhere in the world where investigations were conducted on the pages of the newspapers.
Obanikoro’s media aide situated the story as a case of political persecution, while he queried the wisdom and logic of bandying figures and associating such figures with his sons who are thoroughbred professionals in their own right.
Without mincing words, he frontally accused Sahara Reporters of carrying out a vendetta, spreading lies, misleading the public and defaming his hard-earned name because of the cases he has instituted against the organization.
He urged the EFCC to be straight and above board in their investigations and avoid speculations and conjectures that are infringing on the fundamental human rights of his sons. His words: “I am particularly amazed by the fact that trials and investigations are being done using the media unconventionally just to satisfy the cravings of political entities who are desperate to rub my hard earned reputation in the mud”.
