Vanguard Newspapers has apologised and withdrawn its publicaton alledging Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of complicity in a N90bn FIRS election fund.
The move comes following Osinbajo’s decision to seek legal redress in court if the newspaper does not apologise and retract the story.
In a statement released on Wednesday and signed by Laolu Akande, Osinbajo had stated that he would waive away all immunity to ensure a proper judicial inquiry over the allegations that has been trailing him for days.
However, in a bid to forestall the move Vanguard Newspaper published a statement on its website on Wednesday, apologising and retracting the entire report.
Eze Anaba, Vanguard editor, said in the statement that the newspaper has discovered the story “lacks factual substance”.
He said: “On our website publication of Monday, September 23, 2019, we published a story titled “N90bn FIRS Election Fund: Osinbajo’s problem, not 2023 politics.” We have since discovered that the story lacks factual substance and we hereby retract it in its entirety.
“We tender our profound apology to Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on whom the story touches directly and the All Progressives Congress, APC, for any inconvenience or embarrassment the publication has occasioned them. We hold Professor Osinbajo, SAN, in the highest esteem.”
In the story titled, ‘N90 bn FIRS election fund, Osinbanjo’s problem, not 2023 politics – Frank’, Vanguard had quoted Timi Frank, a former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who accused Osinbajo of mismanaging some funds.
Frank was quoted as saying Osinbajo’s recent experiences “has nothing to do with 2023 but alleged mismanagement of about N90 Billion Naira (sic) released by the Federal Inland Revenue Inland Service (FIRS) to prosecute the last general elections in favour of the APC”.
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