Samoa Agreement: Nigerian govt reports Daily Trust to Ombudsman

The Nigerian government has formally written to the Nigerian media ombudsman to complain about a Daily Trust report on the Samoa Agreement.

The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, stated this on Wednesday while addressing reporters in Abuja at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

“The federal government insists that that report on the Samoa agreement was misleading, it was false and designed to create confusion in the land.

“My ministry briefed the Federal Executive Council on all the steps we have taken, including writing to the industry’s own ombudsman with a view to drawing the attention of Daily Trust Newspaper about that very misleading report,” Mr Idris said. “We expect that the industry’s ombudsman will look at that dispassionately and FEC will be patient to await the report of the ombudsman.”

Daily Trust newspaper had claimed in its report that the Samoa Agreement signed by the Nigerian government in June included clauses that mandated Nigeria to support the rights of LGBTQ community.

The Nigerian government, however, denied that the agreement had any such clause and a fact-check by PREMIUM TIMES showed that while the European Union initially wanted the clause included, the final version signed by Nigeria and other countries had no such agreement.

In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Idris said the Bola Tinubu adminstration is approaching the ombudsman because it is committed to press freedom while opposed to falsehood.

“FEC also stated its commitment to media freedom and the freedom of expression in this country. Like we have said over time, there is no intention whatsoever for the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to gag the press or be seen in any way working in the way of media freedom or press freedom,” he said.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, who also briefed journalists, echoed a similar view as Mr Idris.

Details later…