BEVERLY HILLS, June 12, (THEWILL) – Citing orders from above, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , EFCC, on Monday stormed the head office of The Sun Newspaper in Apapa, Lagos, in a one-hour raid that was said to have disrupted the newspaper’s circulation process. The Sun is owned by a former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu.
The management of the media organisation, in a statement issued on Monday afternoon, disclosed that in the course of the invasion, “heavily armed” agents of the commission subjected its staff to “crude intimidation, psychological and emotional trauma”.
It explained that the EFCC chairman had on May 23 asked the Sun management to report to the commission on June 5 with details of the newspaper’s operations in the last 10 years when the anti-graft agency obtained an interim forfeiture order in respect to its some asset, but that the letter was received on June 7.
The news organisation claimed that the raid was an expression of personal vendetta by the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, over a previous investigative story it ran about a property traced to Magu’s wife. This was as it noted that Magu had before now threatened to sue the paper.
THEWILL recalls that Magu had two months ago accused the Sun Newspaper of libel, and is demanding a N5 billion naira compensation for “libellous imputations and statements” made against him in a story published in the March 25, 2017 edition of the Saturday Sun.
According to EFCC’s Head Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, “The publication was captioned ‘Magu Under Fresh Probe over 2 Abuja Mansions’, which Magu’s solicitor, Wahab Shittu, noted in a letter that the authors of the story “willfully and maliciously made false, destructive, and defamatory statements” against the EFCC boss.
But vowing not to succumb to intimidation, The Sun newspaper and asked Nigerians to call the acting chairman of the EFCC to order, insisting that no one, agency or authority should be above the laws of our country.
The statement entitled: EFCC INVASION OF THE SUN PREMISES: OUR POSITION, BY THE SUN MANAGEMENT, reads in full…
Law -abiding staff of The Sun Publishing Limited resumed work this morning, June 12, 2017 to behold heavily armed EFCC operatives in our company. They claimed to have “orders from above” to seal up the premises of The Sun Publishing Limited.
At gunpoint, they ordered our security personnel to take them round the company premises, after which they proceeded to prevent staff from either entering or leaving the premises, and disrupted our circulation process.
For one gruelling hour, EFCC operatives subjected our staff to crude intimidation, psychological and emotional trauma, even as some of the men accused our organisation of publishing pro-Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories, as they surveyed our premises.
We recall that in 2007, (10 years ago) the EFCC had obtained an interim forfeiture order in respect of some assets of The Sun, attached to a suit against our Publisher, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, for which we have filed an appeal, which is still pending in court.
We also recall that the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu had written a letter personally signed by him dated 23rd of May and received on the 7th of June, asking The Sun management to report to the Commission on 5th of June, detailing our operations in the last 10 years, on account of an interim order of forfeiture under appeal
As law-abiding corporate citizen, our lawyer, Chief Chris Uche SAN, wrote the Commission to intimate the Agency that the issue was pending before the court of Appeal. The receipt of our correspondence was duly acknowledged.
We were therefore shocked that our premises would be invaded by the Commission under whatever guise. This is condemnable and reprehensible. No one, agency or authority should be above the laws of our country. An abuse of the law is a recipe for chaos.
Magu had in an earlier letter threatened to sue The Sun over a report published by one of our titles, pertaining to a report on the investigation of a property allegedly traced to his wife. But up till now, we are yet to receive any court process.
In the light of the above, we strongly view this onslaught against The Sun as a personal vendetta by the leadership of the Commission, and by extension a declaration of war against the media.
In this invasion of our premises, it is crystal clear that what Magu and his Commission are after is not only to intimidate and muzzle us, but a furious attempt to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
On the issue of the interim order, which he purportedly based his invasion, Magu knows the matter has been on appeal since 2007 for which hearing comes up this week. But rather than wait for the court process, the commission under the leadership of Magu, typically resorted to self help.
We want the general public to take note of this authoritarianism and high-handedness, which has been the hallmark of Magu’s leadership of the EFCC.
The other charge of publishing Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories is very ridiculous, baseless and anti-Press freedom.
We like to state that we are neither an ethnic, political nor religious newspaper, but we are the Voice of the Nation, reflecting all sides, all views and all shades of opinion in line with the ethics of our profession.
We challenge Magu and his Commission to show where The Sun’s stories have been different from other papers in the country.
We call on well-meaning citizens and relevant authorities to restrain Magu and his Commission from taking the laws into their hands.
