…threatens newspaper with libel suit
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), says he did not receive the sum of N28million from the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Magu is currently being probed by a special presidential panel for alleged corruption.
A newspaper had alleged in a recent report that the human rights lawyer got a sum of N28milion from the embattled EFCC boss.
But Falana, in a pre-action letter signed by his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), demanded a retraction of the claim by the newspaper which published the online story.
The newspaper had based its story on a report published by the Federal Government-owned News Agency of Nigeria, which claimed to have obtained the final report of a prior presidential panel allegedly indicting Magu for being unable to account for the interest generated from N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.
NAN had reportedhad reported that the presidential panel’s report titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020’ exposed acts of corruption and money laundering against some EFCC officials, including Magu.
In his letter demanding the retraction of the NAN’s story as published by the Lagos-based newspaper within 48 hours, Falana’s lawyer had described the story as “damning against my client because his entire career as a lawyer has been devoted to fighting human rights abuses and corruption in high and low place.
“In the circumstance, my immediate instruction is to demand that you acknowledge your wrongdoing, expressly admit that what you imputed against my client was false, and apologise for your unprofessionalism and the damage you have caused to him.
“I do hope that you will, within the next 48 hours, comply with this gentlemanly request by publication on the front page of your newspaper. Failing compliance, my instruction is to issue a Writ in the tort of defamation in order to afford you an opportunity to prove what you imputed against my client’s character.”