₦airaland Forum

tyadams: ChannelsTV reporter was a kinda hero in Kano state barely two years ago. May his soul RIP. He was covering an exchange of fire between the BH boys and the NPF at the NPF divisional headqtr Farm Centre, Along Zaria road. Kano state. When he was also fired.

Maxymilliano: The presidency has convinced former head of state General Muhammadu Buhari to settle out of court the libel suit he had initiated against the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati.

Abati had on page 51 of the April 22, 2011, edition of The Guardian newspaper, written an opinion article entitled “For the attention of General Buhari”. In it, he claimed that Buhari made an inciting statement which led to the post-election violence that rocked some parts of the north.

The former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), however, regarded the publication as defamatory, intended to lower his integrity and to bring him into public ridicule. Buhari consequently dragged Abati and The Guardian to court via suit no. ID/837/2011 and demanded N1billion damages from them.

But in a copy of the Terms of Settlement exclusively obtained by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY and filed before a Lagos High Court in Ikeja, the parties have agreed to settle the matter out of court.

In the terms of settlement dated December 2012 and filed before the administrative judge of Lagos State, Justice Opeyemi Oke, the claimant (Buhari), Mr. Tope Adebayo ( lawyer to Buhari), Abati and Mr. Kunle Sanyaolu (lawyer to The Guardian) signed the terms of settlement. But the lawyer to the firstdefendant (Abati), Dame Carol Ajie, declined to sign the document.

The document quoted the claimant and defendants as having explored the option of amicable settlement of the suit and agreed that, by virtue of the execution of the terms ofsettlement, all issues relating to the suit should be determined.

The parties further agreed that Abati and The Guardian should retract and apologise to Buhari in certain form and contents.

The terms of settlement reads in part: “The claimant (Buhari) and defendants (Abati and The Guardian) have agreed that the defendants should publish a retraction and anapology to the claimant on the Opinion Page of the newspaper, to be printed in reverse lineblack (RLB) within seven days of entering the Consent Terms as the judgment of the court in two editions of The Guardian.

“The claimant and defendants have agreed and resolved that the retraction and apology shall take the following form and contents: ‘Re: For the attention of General Buhari’- On April 22, 2011, The Guardian Newspaper published an article on Page 51 titled ‘For the attention of General Buhari’ where certain allegations were made against General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), GCFR, concerning the 2011 election and General Buhari’s alleged role in the violence emanating from the elections.

“The publication was based on information which we believed to be reliable at that time. Since the publication, however, we now have reason to believe that certain parts of the story were not verified to be correct before the publication.

“We assure General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd),GCFR, of our highest esteem and regret any distress or embarrassment which the said publication may have caused him.

“The claimant and defendants agree that on the execution of these Terms of Settlement, the defendants are discharged from all or any liabilities or obligations arising from the said publication.”

Abati had stirred the hornet’s nest in the said column when he wrote that Buhari made an inciting statement after the 2011 presidential poll thus: “You should never leave polling centres until polls are counted and the winner declared and you should lynch anybody that tries to tinker with the votes.”


http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/44864/2013/01/13/libel_presidency_begs_buhari.html

[size=14pt]Post Election Violence: Buhari Threatens To Sue Reuben Abati For Libel[/size]

by MAYOWAAK: 10:59pm On Jul 17, 2011

Barely a week after his appointment as chief spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, Reuben Abati is having his first taste of political and legal heat. Muhammadu Buhari, former military head of state and presidential candidate for Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has threatened to drag Mr. Abati, until recently a columnist as well as chairman of the editorial board of the Guardian, to court for an alleged libel.

Mr. Buhari is miffed over a column Mr. Abati penned alleging that Mr. Buhari's campaign slogans were the cause of the post-election violence after the April 2011 presidential polls.

In a letter sent to Abati by Tope Adebayo, Mr. Buhari gave the new presidential aide one week to retract the libelous column or face a libel suit.

In a statement that accompanied the letter, Buhari's spokesperson, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said that all those who peddled falsehood against the former head of state must pay for their actions, adding that Mr. Abati is one of such individuals.

Prior to Mr. Abati’s appointment as presidential spokesman to Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, he wrote a series of columns in the Guardian that were apparently in preparation for his recent appointment. It was in one of the pro-Jonathan columns that he made the allegations against Mr. Buhari.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/post-election-violence-buhari-threatens-sue-reuben-abati-libel

The Chinese gave soft loans to Sri Lanka, then the SL government announced that they couldn't afford to repay the loans, so they just handed over the infrastructure to China. China now owns ports, airports, highways . . . it will happen in Nigeria too.

playmode: [size=15pt]That may true but even you must agree that the chinese should not have sent such a low ranking officer to meet GEJ.Jokes aside that was not cool on the part of the chinese.[/size]

[size=14pt]Re: For the attention of General Buhari[/size]

Thursday, 11 July 2013 00:00 Editor

SIR: “On April 22, 2011, The Guardian Newspaper published an article on page 51 titled “For the attention of General Buhari” wherein certain allegations were made against General Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged role in the violence emanating from the elections.

   The publication was based on information which we believed to be reliable at that time. Since the publication, however, we now have reason to believe that certain parts of the story were not verified to be correct before the publication.

  We assure General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) GCFR of our highest esteem and regret any distress or embarrassment which the said publication may have caused him.”

— Editor

omar22: Yes most infrastructures like road and bridges been built in the western world has a toll on it but I dont agree with N500 which is too high, yes this levy goes towards the maintenance of the bridge its not like they collect road tax in Nigeria

ninja4life: Rip man,well i dont think any nigerian reporter is ready to go to such learnt b4 making their reports.most of them na copy and paste they specializes in.i hope dey take their job seriously and expose d ills their polilical jobbers are doing to d country.

NNMUU: *Just thinking to myself*
How does GEJ understand what the Chinese President is saying at this very moment??

mooregan: Ur argument is baseless. Obama is de worlds most powerful man, de treatment can't just be de same, quit comparing. It would have been same if Nigeria was de Host. You guys r always looking for ways to rubbish de image of Our President.

[size=14pt]Nigerian president finalizes loan deals in China.[/size]

Posted: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 8:42 am

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Chinese President Xi Jinping presided Wednesday over the signing of accords between their governments to facilitate $1.1 billion in low-interest loans for much-needed infrastructure in Nigeria.

China, which is increasingly looking to Africa for oil and other natural resources, is offering Nigeria loans to help fund airport terminals in four cities, roads, a light-rail line for its capital, a hydropower plant and oil and gas infrastructure.

Xi said both countries had been brought together by a common task of pursuing national development. "As a proverb of Nigeria reads, `A man cannot sit down alone to plan for prosperity,'" he said.

Jonathan, on a four-day trip to China, has brought along about a dozen of his Cabinet ministers including those for petroleum resources, trade and transport, as well as several state governors, senior government officials and businesspeople.

Following a meeting between Xi and Jonathan, representatives from both countries signed five deals, including a lending agreement between China's Import-Export Bank and the Nigerian finance ministry for the expansion of the airport terminals and an economic and technical cooperation pact. Details of the agreements were not immediately available.

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says the loans being finalized during this trip are part of $3 billion approved by China at interest rates of less than 3 percent.

Chinese companies are already building roads across Nigeria in contracts worth $1.7 billion.

China's demand for crude oil produced in Nigeria is expected to rise tenfold to 200,000 barrels a day by 2015, according to information provided by a team accompanying the Nigerian president.

Zhang Chun, an expert on Africa at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Studies, said Nigeria is important to China because it has the largest economy in west Africa and because it has oil. "There is great potential for developing cooperation in this field," he said.

On Thursday, Jonathan will meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and representatives of companies including state oil company Sinopec and telecom equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.