PUBLISHER of Abuja-based online newspaper, National Record, has demanded of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) an apology for its defamatory statements contained in a press release issued on December 30, 2021 and signed by its General Secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja.
The publisher, Iduh L. Onah, in a letter signed on his behalf by his attorney, Marcel Oru, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), dated Thursday, 27th January, 2022 and received at the Office of the General Secretary of NLC the following day, Friday, 28th January, 2022; said the false statements and words used in the press statement were not only meant to defame him but also to disparage and destroy his professional career as a journalist and publisher.
“Our client has been inundated with calls from members of the press, the Nigerian Public and international bodies and these publications have lowered our client’s esteem, integrity and reputation in the eyes of these persons which has concomitantly caused and still causing our client loss of patronage, shame, odium, loss of reputation, anguish and opprobrium,” the letter reads in part.
Mr Oru, SAN, also noted that by the false and disparaging claims in the press release that was distributed to the press and posted on the website of the NLC, maliciously defamed Mr Onah who is portrayed in many negative terms as:
“Someone sacked from the NLC for unethical conduct.
“Someone who was sacked from the employ of the NLC as an intermediate staff.
“Someone who was out to extort unsubstantiated terminal benefits from the NLC.
“Someone who is frustrated and has an axe to grind with the NLC (vengeance mission).
“A journalist who twist[s] and publishes falsehood.
“A professional journalist who practices “yellow journalism”.
“Someone whose publications (National Record) should not be relied on for truthful and correct information;
“A petty criminal who is out to extort money from the Nigeria Labour Congress.”
He concluded the letter saying: “On the above premises, we have our client’s instructions to demand from you an unreserved written apology to our client and publication of same in one National Newspaper in Nigeria and on your website.” Read the full pre-litigation letter HERE.
NLC’s false allegations and threat to sue for libel
Comrade Ugboaja, NLC’s General Secretary, had in the press release under context levelled several false allegations against Mr Onah, stating, among others lies, that he was an intermediate staff of the NLC “whose appointment was terminated for unethical conduct.”
In the press release, which was meant to be a response to a story published by National Record on December 26, 2021, entitled: “NLC Staff Accuse Wabba of Hypocrisy for Not Paying Dec. Salary Yet Condemns Others”, Comrade Ugboaja also falsely accuse the publisher of attempting to extort the NLC by making claims for termination benefits that he couldn’t substantiate.
Comrade Ugboaja concluded that as a result of all these, Onah harbours grievances against the NLC; a situation which he said is behind his use of the platform of his publication to publish libellous stories against the NLC.
Ugboaja also accused National Record and its publisher of “yellow journalism”, a euphemism for unethical journalism practice, for failing to contact appropriate authorities of the NLC before publishing stories concerning the organisation even when the channels for doing so were open and available.
Less than a week after the issuance of the press release, the NLC wrote a pre-litigation letter requesting for damages in the sum of N100 million and an apology from the publisher to be published in two national newspapers. Read the press release HERE and the Pre-litigation letter HERE.
National Record’s response
National Record had immediately called NLC’s bluff and accused it of attempting to gag the publication. It also dismissed NLC’s claims of libel and stood by the facts of not only the story on NLC’s failure to pay its staff their December salaries before Christmas, but also all its stories.
The publisher also went ahead to do a detailed letter proving with documents that all the assertions made in NLC’s press release were lies existing only in the imagination of Comrade Ugboaja.
In the letter, Onah asked the NLC to hurry and go to court where he was ready to meet the NLC and that he only decided against holding a press conference upon considering the damage the exposure of the duplicity and integrity deficits of the current minders of NLC will bring on the NLC whose historic role remains indelible in the imagination of Nigerians.
In the opening paragraphs of his 19-page letter, entitled: “OF FALLACIES AND BULLYING: PLEASE, HURRY, GO TO COURT!”, Onah had stated:
“We received with dismay and great discomfort your press release dated 30th December, 2021, entitled: “EXPOSING AND DEBUNKING A PATTERN OF MALICIOUS SLANDER AND LIBELLOUS PUBLICATIONS AGAINST THE LEADERSHIP OF THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS – A PRESS RELEASE.” In accordance with our policy of independent, objective and fair journalism, we wrote a detailed story out of it and published it under the caption: “NLC Accuses National Record, Publisher of Slander, Libel, Extortion” on 1st January, 2022.
“We had intended to follow this up with a press conference or press statement to also publicly query your very interesting false narratives and assertions, but we were momentarily held back by our loyalty to the pristine ethos of the labour movement that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) represents because of the collateral impact our deconstruction, as you will see presently, may inflict on the organisational integrity of the Congress.
Of course, we are also under obligation to defend the integrity and credibility of our young publication and its publisher which you channelled so much energy to smear. In the end, we resolved on a fairly compromising position, which is to respond via a comprehensive letter to do a passive reflection purposely to put the records straight by querying one after the other your disingenuous facts.”
After responding to every shred of the allegations raised by Comrade Ugboaja in the press release, and leaving no doubt as to the truth, Onah had concluded his letter by again urging the leadership of NLC under Comrade Wabba to hurry to court.
He stated: “Like I said in the beginning of this letter, Comrade GS [General Secretary], I again implore you to hurry, go to court. For us, it is needed as an Open Day for Nigerians to further know your true nature and character. Of course, we at National Record are ever prepared to face you and your puppeteer in court and further expose the rank mediocrity, bigotry, and shallow intellectualism; mischief, hypocrisy and duplicity, all of which have combined to, at the moment, impede, if not totally entrap, the Nigeria Labour Congress from really playing its historic emancipatory role of leading a mass movement that will bring about the Nigeria the NLC has for the past decades championed.” Read the letter HERE.
