The legal counsel to Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff, Ugochukwu Osuagwu at the weekend denied reports by some media outfits over a matter involving an online publication, Premium Times and the police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Osuagwu on Sunday stated that the said publications are false as the statements reported were not made by the police in the FCT. “No such statement was made by FCT police Command nor the police commissioner.
“My attention has been drawn to a publication by a newspaper of January 21 2017 entitled ‘Army, Premium Times Impasse: FCT Police Command Sues for Peace’ and one on a broadcast medium entitled ‘Police Advise premium Times, Army to resolve impasse peaceably’ which falsely stated that the FCT Police Command has urged the management of the Premium Times and the Nigerian Army to resolve and settle their dispute peacefully.
“What we had with the FCT Police Commissioner was a session to extract facts from both sides of the matter before the Police can proceed with filing criminal charges against Premium times personalities involved in peddling injurious falsehood against the person of the Chief of Army Staff,” Osuagwu stated.
He added that the three count charges against the affected Premium Times staff were ready as at 5pm on Friday, adding that they would be arraigned in court this week.
“There is no such thing as peace meeting or reconciliation as claimed by Vanguard. This is a criminal matter and not a civil one where you reconcile. It is therefore embarrassing and unprofessional for some media stations to publish a story that was not verified nor the other party consulted before publishing these stories online.
He added that it is expected that journalists are aware of the existence of the Cyber CRIMES ACT 2015 on the implication of false online publication and asked that the affected media outfits correct false online publications accordingly.
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