Date Published: 06/22/11

Re - Governor Ajimobi accused of stealing N15 million from Access Bank

We are constrained to respond to the irresponsible and half-truth online journalism as demonstrated by Pointblanknews’ story entitled, Governor Ajimobi accused of stealing N15 million from Access Bank.

Online journalism, any journalism for that matter, does not give anyone the license to impugn another man’s name recklessly, especially without the fulfillment of the time-worn journalism ethical practice of seeking the respondent’s view and reaction on such a news item.

In the news story under reference, not only did Pointblank News deviate from this norm by publishing a story which was, at best, a pot-pourri of badly-scripted untruth, it did not even find it necessary to seek the libeled recipient’s side to the story. Pointblanknews merely picked a copy of the affidavit in support of the Access Bank’s suit, published it verbatim and deliberately ignored to use at least a single paragraph of Senator Ajimobi’s counter-affidavit, much less bothering to find out what transpired thereafter. In the process, it misled a number of people and projected that it was either too thirsty for a piece of slander and libel and just couldn’t bother what was strung to it, or it was being used by powerful political/security groups who felt that the Abiola Ajimobi government had displaced them from their pot of soup which Oyo patrimony had been for them before now.

Indeed, Access Bank, which had been the banker of Senator Ajimobi for long, especially during the period when he was in the Senate, was asked by the Senator to do a fixed deposit of the sum of N15,432,860.01 for him. As at this time, the Senator had over N240 million in the said account and money was coming into the account from all sources – his businesses and the Senate. Of a truth, when the bank was to return the deposit, the Bank alleged that it paid the said sum twice in 2006, which, due to the slightly huge amount in the account, the Senator was not aware of. To worsen the take for the bank, when it subsequently sent the statement of account to the Senator, there was no mention of this double payment in it. The bank claimed that it notified the Senator of this double transaction through a text message. As is usual with many banks, lodgments are done more than twice in some cases. In the instant case, the bank itself said its Auditors discovered the double payment in 2008!

Further worsening it was the fact that the Senator was not notified of this double payment until about two years after the transaction. Of course, when the bank notified him, he denied being aware of the double payment and wondered whether some Smart Alec bankers had broken into his account and had started using same for fraudulent transfers. He promptly reported the matter at the police station and the Access bank staff behind this lodgment were arrested. In fact, it was the Senator himself who told the police that none of the staff should be detained and they were all released by the police on self recognissance. The police asked all the staff released on bail to appear the following day for further investigation.

Instead of reporting to the police the following day and presenting other documents relating to the case in their possession as they promised the police, the bank rather chose to slam the police and Senator Ajimobi with a restraining order of injunction in fundamental rights application. The management of the bank later intervened in the matter and acted professionally by re-crediting Senator Ajimobi’s account with the sum it earlier debited unilaterally from the account.  The Senator’s lawyer then asked for damages. The judge, in his remark, jokingly asked if the Ajimobi counsel wanted to kill an ant with a sledge-hammer, as the Access Bank had shown enough remorse. The case was promptly struck out as the two parties chose to settle the matter out of court. Thereafter, the bank and the Senator had made transactions in multiple of millions of naira.

Indeed, when Pointblanknews’ precursor in this badly-cooked broth – the Sunday Tribune – published same, hiding under the cloak of innuendoes, Senator Ajimobi promptly asked his lawyer to write to Access Bank to corroborate or deny the said published story (copies of the said letters is attached). He promptly dispatched a notification to the newspaper asking it to retract the publication or face a libel suit. He is waiting for the newspaper’s reply.

Also attached is a copy of the judge’s pronouncement on the matter which had been settled out of court more than a year ago, precisely since March 23, 2010.

While the media should hold governments accountable on all facets of governance, it should also be circumspect in tar-brushing those who come to government with lofty credentials. Publishing this half-truth as Pointblanknews did was bad journalism. It should not be encouraged but disparaged by all lovers of societal good.

Festus Adedayo (PhD),

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ajimobi on Public Communication.