Group Reacts to Sahara Reporters publication against Police Spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi

By: Bodunrin Kayode

The Integrity Youth Alliance has urged Sahara Reporters to stop misinterpreting tweets from Adejobi Muyiwa, the Spokesman of the Nigerian police.

Responding to a recent publication by Sahara Reporters titled “Police Spokesman Goofs Again, Says Officers Can Threaten To  Kill Innocent Nigerians Who Pose No Threat,” the Group’s National Coordinator, Kelvin Adegbenga, stated that Sahara Reporters were just fault finding with that report.

He noted that one Olufemi Oreniyi called the attention of the Police spokesman, Adejobi Muyiwa, to his experience at Mushin Area, and the response of Adejobi quoted here were “mere words of mouth and do not constitute any offense. Take note pls. Lets read the law. There are decided cases on this assertion, even many popular cases that one can cite here. Ire o,” does not violate any Nigerian law.

The statement went on, “We strongly believe that Olufemi Oreniyi cannot prove that statement “…and he got annoyed and threatens to shoot us dead and nothing will happen,” because the law is trite that he who asserts must prove. See S. 131 (1) of the Evidence Act 2011. 

The burden is therefore on the applicant who asserts that his fundamental rights have been infringed upon to prove same.

“The onus of proof is however on the state to prove that a statement is voluntary or was not taken under oppressive circumstances. Where the accused person retracts a confession, a court can admit the statement and base its decision on it, but it is desirable that the court examines evidences outside the confession to see if it is probable that the accused person committed the crime.

“The mischievous Sahara Reporters should have published the police spokesman’s follow-up answer instead of picking an extraneous part of the tweet, and for clarity’s sake, we hereby reproduce the following tweet: 

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“@SamdGreat01 read his narration very well,bef you react please. A policeman got angry, threatened to shoot because you brought out your papers.

“Did he ask for papers? What was the manner of presenting the papers to the policeman? because he said they stopped them as usual, and he brought out the papers… abba… anyway, one of our beat rules says,” 

“At your point or while on beat or duty, suspect anyone who is unduely friendly. So the policeman has the right to search further. 

“But i am sure something must have transpired between him and the policeman or men. 

“And i can bet it that by the time we look into the case, this was not the real story. So we should view cases objectively before reacting with emotions or sentiments. 

“This man’s story was not absolutely the story or reality at the scene. No. And he can come up, so that we do more findings, i challenge him. Thanks.

“To us, Adejobi’s reaction was to tell them that what they said was not enough to kill them or castigate the men

“We urge Sahara Reporters to cease misleading the public with inaccurate and skewed reporting, as this is completely contrary to investigative journalism standards,” the statement concluded.

Group Reacts to Sahara Reporters publication against Police Spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi