The Federal Government has taken the Daily Trust Newspapers to the Nigerian Press Council over a report alleging that it signed an LGBTQ-themed Samoa agreement named after the Pacific Island Samoa, where it was signed last November.
The report claimed that the agreement contains some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community for recognition, as a condition for benefiting from a $150bn funding package, among other supports from advanced societies.
The FG argued that it was only proper for the paper to admit its report was wrong and tender an apology because of the harm it caused.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Idris who spoke alongside the Attorney-General of the Federation, and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, lamented that Nigerians had embraced the story without reading the Samoa report.
“We have taken to the industry’s self-appointed ombudsman to look at some of the excesses, we have made a complaint to the ombudsman to look at the report and we have sighted examples of where Daily Trust has got it wrong.
“So that Daily Trust can come clean and also mention or apologize to the nation and the government. There is no harm in saying you are wrong in this one, we apologise and we get it right, but we don’t expect that we will just sit down and keep quiet when the government feels that what a particular newspaper has written is not in the best interest of the country and it is not correct.
“It is misinformation and therefore action needs to be taken and the action we have taken is that as we speak now complained with the ombudsman,” said Idris.
He described the press as “a partner in any democratic journey” and the Tinubu administration “believes in the freedom of expression and the role of the media in ensuring uninterrupted democracy.”
