Backstage 21 July, 2008

Stung, Kalejaiye launched a desperate defence through newspaper advertorials. The lawyer’s intention was to discredit TheNEWS.

First, Kalejaiye and a media aide to the governor created the impression that the call records published by the magazine were forged. Apart from a minor headline error which Kalejaiye clung to like a survival straw, he published the response by MTN, a GSM service provider, which claimed that it was “not the source” of the story.

Fact: MTN is not the source of the story because TheNEWS did not officially apply for the call records. We did not need to. MTN has also not said the records were forged. What that company said was that it did not officially hand over the information to us. Except the lawyer has a difficulty with comprehension, the company’s statement was by no means vague.

Kalejaiye also wrote with glee that we once begged him. We congratulate him if he gets off on that. The story concerned Senator Iyiola Omisore and the murder of Chief Bola Ige, a former Attorney-General of the Federation. That we settled out of court did not detract from the veracity of that story. What happened was that a senior judge and a top lawyer, who had agreed earlier to be our witnesses in court, chickened out at the last minute.

The judge who handled that case, and who refused to be compromised and grant bail to Omisore was transferred out of Ibadan.

This week, to further prove that Kalejaiye and his client compromised the tribunal justices, we have shifted into second gear. We publish more facts on the matter.

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Also in this edition, we bring details of the war going on between Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State and the state legislators. Contained in this magazine, too, is a story on the 10th memorial anniversary of Bashorun MKO Abiola, winner of the 12 June 1993 presidential election. It is, indeed, a rich package.