NewsNigeriaPoliticsFG Threatens To Sue Daily Trust Over “Mischievous” Report on Samoa Agreement

The federal government has vowed to institute legal action against Daily Trust newspaper for falsely accusing the government of signing a Samoa deal to promote LGBTQ rights in the country.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made this disclosure during a press conference on Saturday, 6 July at the National Press Centre, Abuja.

Daily Trust had reported that the federal government signed the Samoa agreement with clauses requiring Nigeria to endorse the rights of LGBTQ people. The report also stated that Nigeria would receive US$150 billion to endorse the deal.

The Minister accused Daily Trust of “irresponsible reporting” and a “deliberate effort to brush the government with a tar.”

“In the aftermath of the coup in the 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,” Idris stated.

“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 the 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 hearsay. They also showed no remorse or the humility to recant.

“We however did not envisage that Daily Trust and people behind it could descend 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 Minister described the report as baseless and sensational.”

He said the federal government would also file a complaint to the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) over the report, which he described as “fake news.”

“The Federal Government once again restates its friendly policy towards ethical media and free speech. We would however not take fake news and disinformation that would injure the peace of our country and its national security lightly,” he added.