Following allegations that a $150 billion trade agreement involving Samoa, signed during the Bola Tinubu administration, includes provisions related to LGBT rights, the federal government has announced its intent to pursue legal remedies through established judicial channels.
According to Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Saturday, July 6, 2024, the government expressed concern over what it termed as irresponsible reporting that could jeopardize national security and stability.
Idris stated:
“We are alarmed by the level of reckless reporting and statements by some media organisations and individuals that border on national security and stability.
“While we sometimes view and treat those occasional reporting as part of media’s normal work, we have now seen a pattern that is difficult to be wished away as normal journalism.
“The insidious and inciting publications by the Daily Trust these past months have come across as nothing but a deliberate effort to brush the government with a tar. On many occasions we have restrained ourselves from believing that this was the case but the consistency of the jejune and mischievous publications leaves us with no option.”
Idris continued:
“In the aftermath of the coup in Niger Republic, Daily Trust championed a jaundiced narrative that the Federal Government was driving the country into a war and twisted it with regional sentiment to cause disaffection. The same newspaper gave a banner headline to a baseless accusation that the Government was working on citing foreign military bases in the country. Neither Daily Trust nor originators of that imaginative allegation provided any shred of evidence.
“Then just two weeks ago, Daily Trust concocted and popularised a lie that the Federal Government had renamed the Murtala Mohammed Expressway in Abuja to Wole Soyinka Way. In all those instances all that the paper depended on were falsehood and hearsays. They also showed no remorse or the humility to recant.
“We however did not envisage that Daily Trust and people behind it could decend to the reckless level of attempting to set the country on fire by falsely accusing the government of signing a deal to promote LGBTQ. We found that despicable and wicked because the allegation is nowhere in the document signed. Surprisingly, the paper put forward no evidence nor provided the agreement allegedly signed to prove their point.”
The Nigerian government further expressed regret that the unfounded and sensationalized story has regrettably become the subject of sermons by respected religious leaders in the north, leading to heightened tensions.
“We continue on the honourable path of civility by restraining ourselves from taking self-help or draconian measures. While past governments clamped down on the media for infractions much lower than this, we are however toeing the path of civility and the rule of law.
“This afternoon, I have the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning to provide more clarity on this issue.
“But beyond this, the federal government is lodging a formal complaint to the NPAN Ombudsman on this irresponsible reporting.
“In addition, the federal government will use every lawful means to seek redress in the court of law.
