A statement from the Management



Mrs Florence Ajimobi, wife of the Oyo state Governor,
returned to Nigeria Wednesday morning from the United Kingdom.


She literally walked into a maelstrom, triggered by reports online 
that she was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police.

Understandably, she devoted her press
 conference at the Murtala Muhammed Airport to debunk the reports.



Just like Mrs. Ajimobi, pmnewsnigeria.com has had to cope 
with a turbulence of its own as reactions poured forth over its online report 
that appeared to give a seal of authenticity to earlier reports by some bloggers that Mrs.
Ajimobi was arrested by the Metro Police in the UK.

Reports about the purported arrest had gone viral since the weekend. On Tuesday, pmnewsnigeria.com, sought to tear through the web and 
ascertain the truth by first of all visiting the site of the organization and checking its data base for any mention of “Mrs Ajimobi”.

Its search drew blank. It also similarly searched for her name on the website of Her Majesty’s Customs Service. Again, the search turned up nothing. These efforts were reflected in the story.

Still trying to dig the truth, pmnewsnigeria.com sent an e-mail to the London Metropolitan Police,
asking the organisation to confirm or deny whether the woman was ever arrested.


It was a familiar path in investigative journalism that the company behind
 pmnewsnigeria.com had trodden so many times before, one of which was over the certificate forgery and age 
claims of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives.



After about one hour, pmnewsnigeria.com got a response from the 
Metropolitan Police, that said at the bottom of its query: “Confirmation: Yes”.

In another part of the response, MET said: “Thank you 
for your email. I am sorry, we are unable to disclose any information to you 
under the Data Protection Act.” It was signed by “The Email Office,
Lambeth CCC, Metropolitan Police.”



Pmnewsnigeria.com wrote its report about the ‘confirmation of 
the arrest’ based on this response.

At the point of writing the report, the pmnewsnigeria.com team, interpreted the MET’s “Confirmation : Yes”, as a
 confirmation of the question they had asked, viz: “We are trying to confirm
 whether the story(about Mrs. Ajimobi) is true and whether the MET is planning
 to press a charge”.



Was this where the team went wrong?

Events thereafter appeared to suggest that the e-mail response was a mere auto-response, its standard, robotized and programmed answer to all enquiries.

The team was misled by it and had acted on it innocently.

Since then, the Oyo state government, acting on behalf of Mrs Ajimobi has vehemently denied the report and also threatened to sue the website.

Since then, 
the attorney-general of Oyo state has 
made another contact with the same London Metropolitan Police and got one-liner response from a Mr. Rob Singh of the Press Bureau of Metropolitan 
Police, Scotland Yard:

“Re your press query. I am afraid we 
have no knowledge.”



On our part, we have carried out further checks. And we have found nothing to justify the pmnewsnigeria.com story. Several reporters within the organization have also mailed the Metro Police, separately, asking the same question that pmnewsnigeria.com had asked in an earlier e-mail.

They all got the same response, with a note at the bottom of the mail saying: “Confirmation: Yes”. This further confirmed pmnewsnigeria.com belief that it has been a victim of a computer game.

In line, with journalistic best practices, management wants to formally disassociate pmnewsnigeria.com with the content of this story and apologise to Mrs Ajimobi and all our readers for this reportorial error.

One salient point that we want to make, as management, is that pmnewsnigeria.com did not deliberately go out of its way to seek to malign Mrs Ajimobi or bring her into
public opprobrium. Its story was not also the product of any political machination.

The quest for the truth in the public interest is this website’s duty. It is what the site pursued in the case of Mrs. Ajimobi.



Management

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/11/01/pmnewsnigeria-com-mrs-ajimobi-and-london-metropolitan-police/

you go explain your apology in court.

Buncha of r.etards!!...why not go through the whole process of verification before rushing to press.

ilugunboy: Buncha of r.etards!!...why not go through the whole process of verification before rushing to press.

PM News in trouble.

Shame to bad people, shame to Internet warriors, whose itching fingers type faster than their brains. Shame to PMnewsnigeria.com for rushing to spread lies. Praise God for the vindication of his daughter.

The PM newspaper shld be sued and close down finally..they just spread falsehood

That was a very poor way of practicing journalism. If that wicked and unverified news had a poor man as its subject no correction would have been made. Shame unto !

If you're armed with a gun and you are confronted by an armed robber and a Nigerian PRESS, 'kill' the NP and leave the armed robber.
It a proverb please!

At last we know she's innocent...
Can we now shake hands, hug and move on.....



But then, I think someone has to be taught a lesson....

peckhamboi: you go explain your apology in court.

Don't mind them. Instead of them to look for news that would encourage Nigerians in this trying times, these media people are only looking for defamatory news

Coming from the Horses mouth.


Then why were people rushing forward to crucify her?


You see why it is not good to rush to Judgement in anything whatsoever.


Shame on PM News. But dont worry, the State Government will soon withdraw its lawsuit.

Chai! I don yab the woman die o, unto say I no like ACN.

What do you expect from Poor Man Newspaper?

Ok.

See ya in court

Should I also believe this ?

We no gree o,we no go gree PM NEWS must go to court. Mummy mi e am gba fun won,let them cough out some money so that they would learn.

12 lashes of cane each to all the editorial member of PM NEWS

But dere is an atom of truth in every rumor

Sh*t happens! Guess a similar scenario was replicated some weeks ago. In Transparency International Vs GEJ led FG katakata. PM news wrote trash against the FG then, now karma visits. Lets see who bleeds more.....hahaha

M M M: But dere is an atom of truth in every rumor

Nigerians!! Kai!!!

After the newspaper tender an apology and dissociate itself from the news!!!

Atom ko! Neutron ni!!

The hatred for some political group has blinded any form of objectivity!!!

When you have made up your mind to hang a dog, any rope would do!!!

Awon onisokuso!!

PM news has biting more than they can chew,Madam should sue their flat a:sses to court.

If she was truly arrested, EFCC and Nigeria High Commission in the UK would have confirmed it.
This is a case of investigative journalism gone sour

Journalism stil in the stone age. These guys shd upgrade, print media especially.

M M M: But dere is an atom of truth in every rumor

^^^ See talk SMH.

Hmmmmmm.... Why are we so poor in researching to get an authentic information/report on a subject matter before broadcasting it, in this part of the world.

I am not surprise by the unprofessional attitude of PM News, if the whole Presidency who should have accurate and first hand information can non-challantly lifted a false information about the Corruption Index in Nigeria without verification before reading it to Nigerian and International world on October 1st, what more should we expect.

In a sane country, the paper will automatically lost its credibility, I am sure before tomorrow, many Nigerians will still believe blindly in the information that will be pass out by the same media company. May God save us in this part of the world.

IYA NGBALI: We no gree o,we no go gree PM NEWS must go to court. Mummy mi e am gba fun won,let them cough out some money so that they would learn.

Gbam x 100000

Let others learn from it. Enough of quack journalism in Nigeria. It is time to get professional.

M M M: But dere is an atom of truth in every rumor

if sum1 pay me to spread rumours on nairaland that u are gay and armed robber.. Does that mean there is atom abi na neutron of truth in it?

I am not opinionated on this. I jump am pass

Red-Light:

if sum1 pay me to spread rumours on nairaland that u are gay and armed robber.. Does that mean there is atom abi na neutron of truth in it?