Premium Times has slammed a three-week suspension on Samuel Ogundipe, a journalist who wrote a story linking Aisha Buhari, wife of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to the Williams Jefferson scandal, SIGNAL can exclusively report.
Ogundipe, a General Assignment Correspondent with the Premium Times online newspaper was suspended after failing to respond to a query issued by the management of the newspaper and eluding a disciplinary panel, according to our source within the paper who did not want to be named.
Trouble began for Ogundipe when Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose revived a controversy surrounding the role played by Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari in a messy bribery scandal involving U.S. Congressman, Williams Jefferson.
Mr. Fayose had distributed a link to the U.S. Department of Justice website holding court documents where Mrs. Buhari was alleged to have transferred suspicious funds to a convicted former American congressman, Williams Jefferson.
In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, Mr. Fayose said President Buhari was far from being a clean man.
“Even the President cannot claim to be an angel,” the governor said, in reaction to the freezing of his Zenith Bank account by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“The estate he built in Abuja is known to us. His wife was indicted over the Halliburton Scandal (sic). When that American, Jefferson, was being sentenced, the President’s wife was mentioned as having wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialize the judgment for people to see and read,” Fayose’s statement read.
The governor’s Special Assistant on New Media, Lere Olayinka, later circulated links and copies of the court document detailing Mrs Buhari’s mention in the scandal.
Riding on the wave of the moment, Ogundipe developed a report for Premium Times detailing Fayose’s account of Mrs. Buhari’s involvement in the Jefferson scandal.
The report cited a 2007 New York Times’ article, which described how Mrs. Buhari told an acquaintance in Washington that she was a daughter of a former Nigerian head of state and a friend of Mr. Jefferson.
Obviously embarrassed by Fayose’s statement linking her to the Jefferson case and the widespread media coverage it received after Ogundipe’s report was published by Premium Times, Mrs. Buhari wrote to Fayose through her lawyers demanding a full retraction of the statement.
In a warning letter dispatched through her legal representatives, Mrs. Buhari said Mr. Fayose’s action was directly responsible for the publication of the “very wild and unfounded” allegations in the media.
A copy of the letter, sent to Fayose via courier was made available to Premium Times and immediately called attention to how Ogundipe’s report was putting Premium Times in the line of fire from the Nigerian Presidency and Mrs. Buhari. According to a source who did not want to be named, Mrs. Buhari actually issued threats at Premium Times castigating the online newspaper for failing to double check its facts before publishing.
Under the heat of pressure mounted by the Nigerian Presidency and Mrs. Buhari and fearing a possible litigation arising from the report, Premium Times immediately moved to sanction Ogundipe. According to the source, the newspaper appealed to Mrs. Buhari, assuring her the journalist who wrote the report acted irresponsibly and was already being disciplined. Ogundipe was issued a query and thereafter handed a 3-week suspension without pay.
However, despite frantic attempts by Premium Times to devolve itself from Ogundipe’s report, no clear evidence exists exonerating Aisha Buhari from the Jefferson scandal. Sources informed about the development told SIGNAL on Monday the US Department of Justice has neither confirmed nor denied that Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari was the woman mentioned in the Jefferson case.
A text message from SIGNAL to Ogundipe was not replied and subsequent calls to his phone were also not answered at the time of filing this report.
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