Categories: MEDIA

$150 Billion Samoa Deal: NMCC Looks Into FG’s Complaints Against Daily Trust Newspaper

<h4>&dollar;150 Billion Samoa Deal<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the National Media Complaints Commission &lpar;NMCC&rpar;&comma; otherwise known as the Ombudsman&comma; has received a formal complaint from the Federal Government against the Daily Trust newspaper&comma; which it alleged published an article on July 4&comma; 2024 &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>containing false and misleading information that severely threatens national security&period; ”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This disclosure is contained in a statement jointly signed by Eluem Emeka Izeze&comma; Chairman and Feyi Smith&comma; Interim Secretary of NMCC respectively and made available to OpenLife Monday afternoon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>NMCC stated that in the complaint&comma; dated July 8&comma; 2024&comma; and signed by Dr&period; Ngozi Onwudiwe&comma; Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation&comma; on behalf of Information Minister&comma; Alhaji Mohammed Idris&comma; the Government alleged that on July 4&comma; 2024&comma; the newspaper published on its front page a news item titled &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>LGBT&colon; Nigeria Signs &dollar;150 Billion Samoa Deal&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> in which it reported that the Government had endorsed a European Union &lpar;EU&rpar; partnership agreement &lpar;referred to as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Samoa Agreement”&rpar; with member states of the Organisation of African&comma; Caribbean&comma; and Pacific States &lpar;OACPS&rpar;&comma; despite some conditional clauses that compel benefiting nations to support the agitations by the <em><strong>Lesbian&comma; Gay&comma; Bisexual&comma; Transgender and Queer &lpar;LGBTQ&rpar;<&sol;strong> <&sol;em>community for recognition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Government described the report as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>false and misleading<&sol;strong><&sol;em>” and said that as a result of the alleged false report&comma; <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;individuals and government officials have been subjected to hate speech&comma; threats&comma; intimidation&comma; and cyberbullying across social media&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is&comma; therefore&comma; asking the <strong>NMCC<&sol;strong> to intervene in the matter and&comma; among other things&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&CenterDot; <em>Carry out a thorough investigation of the alleged misleading publication&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&CenterDot; <em>Direct the newspaper’s management to publicly retract and correct the alleged false information&comma; with equal prominence as the original article&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&CenterDot; <em>Direct the newspaper’s management to issue an unequivocal apology for allegedly recklessly disseminating false information&semi; and<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&CenterDot; <em>Implement stricter editorial guidelines to prevent a repeat of such alleged unwholesome reports by any newspaper in the future&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;25941" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-25941" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-25941" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2024&sol;07&sol;IMG-20240715-WA0030-300x176&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&dollar;150 Billion Samoa Deal" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"176" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-25941" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Daily Trust<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NMCC has however disclosed that it has sent a formal acknowledgement letter dated July 10&comma; 2024 and signed by its Interim Secretary&comma; Mr&period; Feyi Smith&comma; to the Ministry&comma; informing it that the complaint is receiving the attention of the Commission&comma; and that the outcome would be duly communicated to the Government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It stated further that the management of Daily Trust will be contacted shortly for its response&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;<em><strong>As an independent media regulatory body&comma; it is our duty to promote media adherence to the highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct&comma; as well as ensure that the media operate in a free and unfettered environment&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;In accordance with this mandate and our established procedures&comma; we have commenced an investigation into the government’s allegations&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;We assure the public that our inquiry will be thorough and impartial&period; We look forward to receiving the full cooperation of all parties involved and pledge to continue to ensure transparency throughout this process<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&comma; &&num;8221&semi; NMCC stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Notably&comma; the National Media Complaints Commission &lpar;The Ombudsman&rpar; is an independent&comma; multi-stakeholder co-regulatory body established by the Nigerian Press Organizations&comma;NPO&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is made up of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria &lpar;NPAN&rpar;&comma; the Nigerian Guild of Editors &lpar;NGE&rpar;&comma; and the Nigeria Union of Journalists &lpar;NUJ&rpar;&comma; in collaboration with the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers &lpar;GOCOP&rpar; and the Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria &lpar;BON&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The body is tasked with providing the public with an independent forum for resolving complaints about the press&semi; resolving all complaints quickly&comma; fairly and free of charge&semi; maintaining high standards of journalism practice and journalistic ethics&semi; and defending the freedom of the press and the rights of the people to know&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Share This
Openlife Reporter

Recent Posts

Bandits Allegedly Scam Governor Makinde Of Oyo State Over Kidnapped School Children {Video}

Bandits Allegedly Scam Governor Makinde Of Oyo State Over Kidnapped School Children {Video}   OpenLife…

4 hours ago

Jayeola Olalekan Azeez Interviews Randy Peter Akah On His NDC Political Ambition, Vision For A Better Nigeria

Jayeola Olalekan Azeez Interviews Randy Peter Akah On His NDC Political Ambition   OpenLife Nigeria…

10 hours ago

Alleged N400 Million Appointment Bribe In Abuja: Falana To Defend Adeyemi

Alleged N400 Million Appointment Bribe In Abuja: Falana To Defend Adeyemi   OpenLife Nigeria reports…

1 day ago

Consumer Exploitation: Fuel marketers Dares Government Over High Prices, Threaten To shut Down Filling Stations

Consumer Exploitation: Fuel marketers Dares Government Over High Prices     OpenLife Nigeria reports that…

2 days ago

Why We Paid Over $2 Billion To The Nigerian Government In 2025…Ronald Adams, Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration And Production

Why We Paid Over $2 Billion To The Nigerian Government In 2025…Ronald Adams, Managing Director,…

3 days ago

Access Bank UK Polo Day Drives Global Support For Education Of Vulnerable Children

Access Bank UK Polo Day Drives Global Support For Education Of Vulnerable Children   OpenLife…

3 days ago

This website uses cookies.