THE NEWS MAGAZINE, AREGBESOLA v OYINLOLA

Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:20 am (PDT)

THE NEWS MAGAZINE, AREGBESOLA v OYINLOLA
 
We have always known that we are dealing with a very desperate set of people in the politics of Osun State and Nigeria. We, however, feel shocked to discover that the Action Congress and their foot soldiers in the TheNews magazine could tell very blatant lies with such ingenuity as is contained in the current edition of the magazine.
 
Although the courts will handle the lies, character assassination and libel displayed with such impunity in the so called report on the proceedings at the Osun State election tribunal hearing the petition of Mr Rauf Aregbesola, we, however, feel it is necessary to expose the lies so that the ordinary person does not get confused by them.
 
The AC through TheNews magazine published what they called details of telephone contacts between Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, SAN and two judges of the tribunal. While we cannot speak for the judges, we can and will speak for Otunba Kalejaiye who is being unjustly vilified for doing his lawful duty. The magazine falsely claimed that it sourced the information from MTN. While we know that all claims on Otunba Kalejaiye in the report were false in all ramifications, we have made further contacts with MTN and have been told that there had been no such information from the telecommunication organization.
 
We suspect that what TheNews and its patrons in the AC did was to assemble some smart Alecs  who lifted someone’s log and edited the numbers therein out . Although they said that what they had were details showing call destinations, duration and cost, they, however, exposed themselves when they claimed that one of the logs actually contained wordings of a text message! Everyone conversant with mobile phone call logs knows that they do not contain the actual message which the spirits in the AC-owned TheNews magazine said they found in one of the logs.
 
These characters exposed themselves further by forgetting to edit out the MMS entries in the logs which they displayed under a headline claiming they were CALLS from one of the Judges. Every literate person knows that MMS means Multi Media Service which is used to send PICTURES. Now, the question is: was the poor judge also sending photographs to Lawyer Kalejaiye?
 
 
They even claimed that the judges, who were recording verbatim the proceedings of the tribunal with long hands, were sending text messages to Barrister Kalejaiye while the court was sitting!One would want to ask if the judges have more than two hands.
 
It is not the first time TheNews magazine would engage in such a game. The magazine had once libelled Otunba Kalejaiye only to apologize later and pay him N.5million damages.(See Bromide). Anyone who thinks it should be standard journalistic practice to libel someone and apologise later should know this matter would not go unpunished.
 
We feel the AC and their media friends should blame their lawyers for whatever lapses had been noticed in their cases and expressly admitted by their counsel. They cannot crucify Otunba Kalejaiye for their own ineptitude which is known to the whole world.     
 
It is necessary to state that this write-up is just a preliminary reaction. We promise an expose on the characters behind this grand plot to rubbish reputations built over decades.
 
Lasisi Olagunju
Special Adviser (Media) and
Chief Press Secretary to the Osun State Governor.
  7 July,2008
 
RE: THE NEWS, AREGBESOLA VS. OYINLOLA:
MY POSITION
 
I have read with shock and disbelief the current edition of The News Magazine Vol. 31 No. 1.
 
In the said publication, certain allegations were made against me bothering on perversion of justice. Since the publication, my phone line has been busy. Friends, associates professional colleagues and well wishers have called me to express their anxiety on the said publication. Also since The News went public with my phone number, I have received threat calls and texts.
 
I wish to assure my friends, associates, well wishers and the entire legal community in Nigeria that all allegations made against me by The News Magazine are not only false but they are wickedly ungodly. I have never and would never engage in any base behaviour that will rubbish my name, profession and rank. Emphatically, I did not make or receive any call or SMS text from any judge and did not compromise any judge as alleged by The News. The allegations upon a close scrutiny are not only asinine in context but absolutely infantile in execution.
 
An example of the lie and sadism of The News and their sponsors will suffice for now. The telephone number 08034105705 ascribed to one of the judges actually belong to my junior in chambers Ekerenam Ekpo Esq. Ekpo had been using this line for well over six years!. The poor fellow since The News unjustifiably ascribed his telephone number had been receiving sponsored telephone threats.
 
 Readers will find it quite interesting by joining me to study the tables (call logs) which TheNews magazine claimed it sourced from MTN:
 

The table (log) on page 21 of the magazine has the headline —SOME OF JUSTICE NARON’S CALLS TO KALEJAYE—and gave my number 08034062075 as the recipient of the calls.
 

The table (log) on page 22 of the magazine has the headline-KALEJAYE’S SMS TO JUSTICE NARON-and gave the same number of mine as above-08034062075- as the recipient of text messages I purportedly sent to Justice Naron.
 
Is The News magazine saying that I sent the text messages to myself or that Justice Naron and I share the same telephone line?
 

Again, in the body of the story, especially on page 21 of the magazine, The News gave 08037035105 as the telephone number of Justice Naron to which it said I purportedly made calls and sent text messages. I have looked through all the tables (call logs) displayed in the 14 page report and surprisingly I did not see the number 08037035105 appearing even once as an entry receiving my calls and text messages! Readers and members of the public can also help me look at all the tables (call logs) and study them to ascertain my claims.
 

Readers will observe too that the number 08073160534, a GLO line (not MTN again) was conveniently introduced at a stage by The News magazine as Justice Naron’s new number. Could the magazine be claiming that the judge changed his line and then called a press conference to announce same?
 

I strongly invite readers’ close attention to all the tables (logs) presented as facts (data) by The News magazine upon which it built its house of lies to cast a slur on my integrity. Call logs are  computer generated data on all voice and data calls from and into a given telephone line. Could the self contradictory tables displayed by The News magazine pass for call logs from a telecommunication company?
   
I wish to recall that this is not the first time that The News would make wild and unfounded allegations against me. On the last occasion they carried out their satanic act, they not only apologized but paid damages.
 
I have made enquires at MTN and I cannot put MTN’s reaction better than as stated in its letter dated the 8th July 2008 to me:
“We write in response to your letter dated 7th July, 2008 in respect of the above subject matter. Please be informed that MTN is not the source of the story reported in The News Magazine neither did it produce the phone logs/messages as alleged.
Please, be further informed that MTN treats with utmost confidence phone logs and details of its subscribers. This information is only released under very strict condition to either the subscriber based on his/her valid request, authorized security agencies or pursuant to a court order. We therefore categorically restate that MTN is not the source of the story and that the alleged phone logs/messages did not emanate from us.”
I cannot pretend not to know the temperament, desperation and satanic inclinations of my adversaries at the Election Tribunal, Osogbo.
 
I never knew that they would show satanic inclinations and propensity that bother on the criminal, to wit forgery of documents and writing of criminal fictions.
 
I have referred the aspect of the wicked libel to my legal advisers. I assure The News and its sponsors that this time around, apologies made after the act will not suffice.
 
And if in the process I am killed, as contained in many poison texts sent to me by reason of The News making unfounded, tendentious and silly allegations against me, my blood shall be on the hands and heads of the entire management and staff of The News and their sponsors.
 
Dated this 8th day of July, 2008.
Otunba Kunle Kalejaye, SAN
 
TheNEWS MAGAZINE SINKS DEEPER

In the wake of Otunba Kunle Kalejaye, SAN’s Wednesday press statement which exposed the lies in the lead story of TheNews Magazine in its current edition, the Magazine went to town again on Thursday trying to salvage its battered image. Even in doing this, it admitted that “call logs” it claimed to have got from the computers of MTN which are the major planks of its allegation against Otunba Kalejaye, SAN in its report were not correct. In that statement, TheNews Magazine sank deeper into the morass of its dishonourable act of selling falsehood to members of the public.
We call on members of the public to pick TheNews Magazine again and check the so called logs on its page 23 where it said phone number 08034105705 belongs to Justice Joe Ekanem. Then compare the judge’s name to the “Justice Ekanem Ekpo” mentioned in the advertorial published by TheNEWS Management on Thursday, 10th July, 2008 in some newspapers including its sister publication, The Nation (Page B6).Readers should go further to the table (log) concocted on pages 8 and 41 of The Nation of Thursday, July 10, 2008 and see the name Ekerenam Ekpo (page 41) placed against the same phone number 08034105705.
So which one do we believe in the shifting stories of The News and its sponsors? The facts are these:
1. There is no judge in Osun Election Tribunal who goes by the name, Justice Ekanem Ekpo.
2. Mr. Ekerenam Ekpo is the owner of phone number 08034105705.
3. Barrister Ekerenam Ekpo was called to the Bar in 2004 and so cannot be called a judge in 2008. (See his Call to the Bar Certificate )
4. He works in the Chambers of Kunle Kalejaye SAN & Co.
5. The Supreme Court has and the NBA have the names of all legal practitioners in Nigeria and so, TheNews can go there to check the above facts.
6. Ekpo’s phone number is with his professional colleagues/friends across the country including those in the legal team of Rauf Aregbesola.
7. Newspaper correspondents in Osun State witnessed him receiving sponsored threat calls/messages on the phone line on Tuesday afternoon in Osogbo.
 
AGAIN
1. TheNews has offered no credible fact to explain why it said on Page22 of the Magazine that Kalejaye sent text messages to Number 08034062075 which turned out to be his own line. 
2. Why is TheNews magazine not talking again about the so called “I am grateful” text message allegedly sent to Kalejaye which the magazine claimed to have retrieved from the log? The magazine obviously felt caught pants down in telling this white lie following the rebuttal from Kalejaye’s camp which said text messages cannot be got from a call log.
3. TheNews throughout its reaction kept mum on Barrister Kalejaye’s observation that phone number 08037035105 said to belong to Justice Thomas Naron did not appear even once in all the so called logs it displayed. The implication of this is that, assuming the line belongs to the Judge, then from the evidence provided by TheNews itself, the Judge never made nor received any calls from Kalajaye’s 08034062075.
4. We will not be surprised if TheNEWS comes out in The Nation again to say, “sorry,” there were  mistakes again in the advertorial” and then proceed to concoct another set of “call logs” to make up for the gaping holes in their lies.
AND,
On The Nation’s concocted table (no source was mentioned) showing alleged calls to Kalejaye’s number, we want to raise the following posers:
1. Which technology gave the names of callers in the call logs as claimed in the table?
2. Do The Nation and TheNews want the public to believe that MTN has the names of its subscribers who purchased their lines from roadside hawkers?
Both TheNews and The Nation should rather apologise to Nigerians, particularly the individuals and corporate organizations whose integrity they have impugned instead of destroying themselves further through ill-prepared defences.
The Magazine story was clearly concocted by the Action Congress (AC) to preempt the final outcome of a legal proceeding which they themselves instituted . We are further convinced of this with the filing of a motion on Thursday by the AC seeking to stall the final pronouncement of the tribunal using the magazine publication as ground of its action. The whole thing boils down to working towards an answer. We continue to watch this interesting drama which, we believe, will help sanitise the media and rid it of charlatans and hired character assassins.
 
 
Barrister Funmi Lamuye,
Special Adviser (Legal) to Osun State Governor.
10th July, 2008.