SENATOR Abiola Ajimobi, governor of Oyo State, on Tuesday sued the Independent Communications Network Limited, publishers of PM News, for the sum of N1 billion.
The lawsuit was disclosed in a release issued by the governor’s special adviser on media, Dr. Festus Adedayo, who spoke with sharpedgenews.com earlier on Tuesday when he said no such thing as an arrest of the Oyo State first lady happened anywhere.
PM News had published a story to the effect that Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, wife of the governor, was allegedly arrested in the United Kingdom.
The PM News story referenced another online publication, Newsleak, who had originally published the story that Mrs. Ajimobi was arrested in London on the charge of money laundering.
Responding to the publications, the Oyo State government said it had a responsibility to ensure that the media does not become a tool of misinformation and blackmail.
“We want to state unequivocally that this report is not only wicked, it is the figment of the imagination of the writers. Mrs. Ajimobi was never arrested for any offence whatsoever. Even though our investigations have shown that this is the work of some arrowheads of the opposition, it was done in such an amateurish way that beats the imagination of any responsible reader,” the release said.
The statement said that the Ajimobi Administration viewed the media with deserving respect, but that it was important that those who undermine the professionalism associated with the media know that they would not get away with their acts.
The government also described as “dirty politicking” the tactics employed by opposition politicians in Oyo State, whom it accused of using the media for “propagating falsehood.”
The statement added that the “courts would be able to compel those behind this wicked lie to provide details of the veracity or otherwise of their claims on the governor’s wife.