The Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has reached out to the Guardian Newspaper over a story written about him by the publication.
Recall that in its publication, the newspaper ran a story titled ‘Crossing over from civil to political activism’, which claimed that the minister as a lawyer once prosecuted Senator Godswill Akpabio for graft on behalf of the EFCC.
Keyamo, however, expressed his disappointment at the publication of such unverified claims by a reputed newspaper and demanded a retraction of the said article.
In a press release signed by him, the lawyer wrote, “Sir: My attention has been drawn to an article with the above-mentioned title which appeared at page 13 of The Guardian of Friday, September 27, 2019.
“In the said article, there was a clear factual inaccuracy when you suggested that I was engaged sometime in the immediate past by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to prosecute Senator Godswill Akpabio for alleged graft.
“Nothing can be farther from the truth. I decided to keep a dignified silence in the last few weeks when some mischievous and/or ill-informed individuals kept spreading that narrative in the social media. The reason is that I do not always bother myself to respond to factually inaccurate issues concerning me that are raised from sources that are not credible news outlets, no matter how intense the discussions or debates about those issues become in the social media.
“You can then imagine my shock when a supposedly respectable paper like The Guardian swallowed that narrative hook, line and sinker without the slightest effort at fact-checking.
“Even without searching on Google the cases I have prosecuted, a simple telephone call as a journalist to the spokesperson of the EFCC would have duly informed you that at no time was I ever engaged by the EFCC to prosecute Senator Godswill Akpabio and I never did.
“All the stories about that have been nothing but social media nonsense.
“As far as I can recollect, at no time was Senator Godswill Akpabio charged or arraigned by the EFCC in any court of law for any offence. So how come I was engaged to prosecute a non-existent Charge?
“Kindly retract that portion of your article, whilst I have chosen to ignore all the other innuendoes and subliminal messages you sought to pass across in the said article without hitting the nail on the head.”
He, therefore, appealed to the media to correct these claims.
“Finally, I hope you will make this correction as prominent as you made the said article to dispel any suspicion that you intended some mischief,” he concluded.
