Posted by By Paul Dada on
The publisher and editor-in-chief of Global News, a Lagos-based soft-sell magazine, Mr. Segun Ogunbunmi, has alleged that he has received threats to his life from people believed to be working for the Ogun state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
The publisher and editor-in-chief of Global News, a Lagos-based soft-sell magazine, Mr. Segun Ogunbunmi, has alleged that he has received threats to his life from people believed to be working for the Ogun state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
The threats, according to Ogunbunmi, came after his magazine published a lead story with a headline 'Gbenga Daniel's Multi-Billion Naira Fraud.'
'Since we published the story in our last edition, I've been getting series of anonymous calls. Faceless individuals had been threatening to deal with me and destroy me. I didn't take them seriously at first because I felt they could just be sycophants,' said the publisher.
He said he began to take the threats seriously when he received a letter from a solicitor of Otunba Gbenga Daniel. The first paragraph of the letter, made available to P.M.News, yesterday, reads: 'We act for Otunba Gbenga Daniel and have his instructions to deal with you in respect of the aforementioned matter.'
Ogunbunmi said the tone of the letter made him uncomfortable and afraid for his life. 'My plea is that the public should take note. My life is in danger. Who knows whether they want to send assassins after me?' he said.
However, one of the governor's lawyers, Mr. Taiwo O. Taiwo, told P.M.News that the fear of the publisher was baseless. He said the magazine's story was fabricated and that they only wanted the magazine to retract the story and apologise for its error.
Taiwo said what his legal chambers meant by the first sentence in the letter is that, a legal action would be taken against the magazine if it failed to retract the story.
'We demand an immediate retraction of your fabricated story and an appropriate apology, not only in the front page of your next edition, but also in The Guardian newspaper and City People Magazine, within seven days of the receipt of this letter.
'The apology, which must also be pasted on your website, has to be cleared with us before publication,' said Daniel's solicitors in the letter sent to the publisher of Global News.
The last sentence of the letter reads: 'Should this demand not be met on or before 29 October, 2008, we shall without recourse to you institute an action against you in the appropriate court.'