MAGU: Falana goes after newspaper for publishing he collected millions from suspended EFCC chairman

Lagos SAN Femi Falana has threatened action against the publication of a news wire  story naming him in the final report of  a presidential panel probing the suspended EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu on corruption allegation,

According to the rights activist in pre-action letter, he ordered the Lagos-based newspaper to publish a retraction of the online story or face litigation.

Falana denied receiving N28m from  Magu, who is being investigated for corruption allegations by a special presidential panel.

The newspaper’s story was based on the so-called final report of a prior presidential panel allegedly indicting Magu for being unable to account for the interest generated from N550bn cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.

Falana, through his lawyer Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika,  stated in his letter the story was “damning against my client because his entire career as a lawyer has been devoted to fighting human rights abuses and corruption in high and low place”.

“In the circumstance, my immediate instruction is to demand that you acknowledge your wrongdoing, expressly admit that what you imputed against my client was false, and apologise for your unprofessionalism and the damage you have caused to him,” he said.

“I do hope that you will, within the next 48 hours, comply with this gentlemanly request by publication on the front page of your newspaper. Failing compliance, my instruction is to issue a Writ in the tort of defamation in other to afford you an opportunity to prove what you imputed against his my client’s character.”

The lawyer insisted the newspaper “meant and intended to mean and convey” to its readership that Magu allegedly used a bureau de change operator to pass the sum of N28m to Falana in an alleged money laundering scheme.

Magu has been indicted in the report, and the story was exclusively published on the Nigerian newswire service.