12th July, 2020
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has quashed the report which stated that he received N28m from the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, who is being investigated for corruption allegations by a special presidential panel.
Falana issued the rebuttal in a pre-action letter signed by his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN).
He also demanded a retraction of the claim by a newspaper that published the story.
However, the newspaper’s story was based on a report published by the Federal Government-owned News Agency of Nigeria which claimed to have obtained the 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.
Meanwhile, Falana’s lawyer demanded the retraction of the NAN’s story as published by the Lagos-based newspaper within 48 hours.
The lawyer said 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”.
Olumide-Fusika stated, “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 apologize for your unprofessionalism and the damage you have caused to him.
“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.”