FIRST NEWS Editor Segun Olatunji has resigned from the media outlet following the organisation’s apology to Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, over a story that led him to incarceration for days.
In a statement on Wednesday, May 8, Olatunji disclosed that his resignation was a result of the company’s stance on a report he wrote linking Gbajabiamila to corrupt practices and for the safety of his family.
He also insisted that the report was true.
“In view of the latest development regarding the Gbajabiamila story and the stance of the company’s management, I hereby tender my resignation as the General Editor of First News. It has become imperative for me to resign my appointment for the safety of my person and my family.
“However, I want to state that in no distant time, the truth will come out, and then it’ll be my word against theirs. I hope the management of First Media Network Limited, publishers of First News newspaper, will be magnanimous enough to fully settle the one-year outstanding salaries I am being owed in no time.”
Olatunji was abducted from his residence in Lagos by armed men in military uniform on Friday, March 15, and his whereabouts were kept secret for nearly two weeks.
While his location remained unknown, the leadership of the Nigerian media community searched frantically for him, reaching out to sources within the presidency, the Nigerian Army, and the State Security Service (SSS), who all denied knowing his whereabouts.
By Wednesday, March 27, the media community found that he was being detained by the military, and the International Press Institute (IPI), in a statement, urged Tinubu to direct his immediate release or charge him to court if he was being accused of any offence.
Olatunji was released the following morning as officials of the Defence Intelligence Academy (DIA) handed him over to some journalists by the roadside in Abuja.
Narrating his ordeal during the abduction that saw him flown to Abuja from Lagos, Olatunji expressed fear for his life and that of his family.
Weeks after his release, reports had circulated online that Olatunji confessed to being paid N170,000 to publish a false story against Gbajabiamila and had apologised to the Chief of Staff.
However, Olatunji denied issuing an apology or making such confessions. He said the claims were lies cooked up by the DIA and dared the military to disclose when and where he tendered the apology.
First News apologises, appoints new editor
On May 8, over a month after Olatunji’s release, the management of First News, where he worked as editor at the time of his abduction, published an apology to the Chief of Staff to the President.
The management said the story would be retracted as the organisation discovered that it contained “falsehoods and fabricated stories handed to us as facts by a misleading source.
“As a responsible media organisation, we wish to state very categorically that we have no malicious intent towards the person of the Chief of Staff to the President or his office. Hence, our decision to tender an unreserved apology and the need to publish a retraction of the said story,” the statement by First News read.
Olatunji tendered his resignation shortly after the statement was released, and the organisation immediately appointed Ebere Ndukwu as acting editor.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.