The image and reputation of Nigerian Tribune is in question after a popular human rights lawyer accused the news publishing outfit of peddling falsehood against him.
foremost legal human rights lawyer, Itse Sagay
Itse Sagay, a legal scholar, has denied ever granting an interview to the Nigerian Tribune to deride President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts, SaharaReporters reports.
Speaking with a correspondent of SaharaReporters by telephone from Lagos, Mr. Sagay, a professor of Law, well known constitutional lawyer and head of President Buhari’s advisory committee on anti-corruption, said he was shocked to read a report concocted by the newspaper, crediting him with sharp criticism of the current administration’s anti-corruption strategy.
According to him, the newspaper’s report on his purported interview represented a desperate attempt to discredit President Buhari’s anti-corruption war.
Mr. Sagay told correspondent that he had stopped granting interviews to the Tribune after the paper’s editors had twisted an interview he granted them in August. According to him, the paper’s account of his August interview was tailored to suit the devious agenda of its editors hence his rejection of all efforts by the newspaper to speak with him on record for an interview.
In dismissing the opinion attributed to him by the Tribune, Mr. Sagay said he had never met or spoken to the journalist who wrote the report, insisting that the interview was made up. He challenged the reporter and paper’s editors to provide the public with a tape recording of the so-called interview.
The late Obafemi Awolowo founded the Tribune, and his family still owns the paper, which is one of Nigeria’s longest surviving daily newspapers.