FOLLOWING a report by the International Centre for Investigative Centre (ICIR), Sam Omatseye, a veteran columnist and Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspaper has apologised for spreading false news that Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigerian former Minister of Finance, has been appointed as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Omatseye’s apology came a day after The ICIR reported that the claim made in his column on The Nation Newspaper and his Facebook profile about the WTO job was false.
“I did intended (sic), in an optimistic note, to present Ngozi Okonjjo-Iweala’s job at WTO as fait accompli, not fake news. But it came out the wrong way The error is regretted as I wish her well,” Omatseye posted on Tuesday on his Facebook page.
In his column, Omatseye had written that “It was such a cheer to hear that former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala clinched the WTO job.”
The column was published on Monday, October 12, by the Nations newspaper subtitled ‘Grandmaster and two other plays’.
“This is the second person from the Jonathan administration to be so honoured by an international agency of prestige. The last one was former agriculture minister Akinwunmi Adesina, who stared America in the face and rode back to the glory of his job,” he added.
However, The ICIR’s Factcheck showed that the claim is false and misleading.
The report noted that two candidates have been shortlisted for the position, but the final round of selection has not commenced yet. The candidates are Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94