adminA well-known businessman and philanthropist Alhaji Ibrahim Dende Egungbohun, also known as IBD Dende, has filed a petition with the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, BON, and Arise Television regarding the libellous publication by an undercover journalist, Fisayo Soyombo.
According to Dende, the allegations are intended to cause him inconvenience, danger, criminal intimidation, animosity, and hatred.
In a letter written to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun by his counsel, D.O Folalu of Law Fix Chambers said the publication that mentioned Alhaji Ibrahim Dende Egungbohun’s name amounted to character assassination with the deliberate goal of causing harm to him and his companies both inside and outside of Nigeria.
Fisayo Soyombo, an uncovered journalist last week in his write-up titled “Undercover as a smuggler,” alleged that Egungbohun was a smuggler of Rice, turkey and guns.
The publication published since Thursday, February 22, 2024, on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) was tweeted under the names fijnigeria and efisayosoyombo, with a variety of contents, including a sixteen-minute documentary called “Undercover as a Smuggler” that was also aired on Arise Television.
In the petition to the Inspector General of Police, Egungbohun said that “the publications and the documentary fabricated by Fisayo Soyombo in relation to our client, are false in their entirety and they excessively breached the decent fundamentals of public enlightenment which the freedom of press is constitutionally about.
“It is therefore our client’s position that the totality of the documentary where our client’s name is criminally featured and the followed-up publications amount to nothing, but character assassination with calculated view to achieve damaging effects against our client in his businesses within and outside Nigeria.
“It is also the position of our client that these orchestrated allegations are designed for the purpose of causing inconvenience, danger, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred and needless anxiety to our client contrary to section 24 of the cybercrimes (prohibition, prevention) Act, 2015.
The petition requested the IGP to cause the publications to be investigated with utmost urgency and seriousness, “as they have implication not for the person of our client only but for the security architecture of our dear Country”.
Also, in the petition to the Arise TV, the counsel said the Television Station aired the libelous sixteen-minute long documentary about their client that was preoccupied with criminal resentment and animosity, which was neither warranted nor justified against their client.
It says “Arise TV is very wrong to have broadcast the documentary in question, which maliciously targets the character and reputation of our client in al respects without sufficient fact-checking and verification of the sources.
“However for emphasis, the documentary falsely states among others “that our client, sometimes in 2022, was arrested by the security agents for gun running and but bribed his way out.”
“This documentary is indefensibly false and malicious, yet your media house gave a platform to unverified and potentially defamatory content, especially when it comes to an individual’s reputation and integrity.
He however demanded a public apology and retraction of the said broadcast and called the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria to “investigate and sanction Arise TV/ Arise Media Group.
“ In the meantime, to affirm the right of our client against your defamatory publication broadcast, we demand that you confirm to us within 24 hours of receipt of this letter, an apology, and your retraction of the said broadcast/documentary by responding to this letter.
“ Note also that we are claiming damages of Five Hundred Million Naira (N500, 000,000.00) from your Media house for the expressly defamatory broadcast in issue.
