It has become necessary for me to write this article and use the headline chosen because of the embarrassment the title of last week’s column caused me and the danger it poses to my safety. The caption that went with the script I sent for publication was: Controversial Lekki Massacre: Victims should sue FG & the Army. But this was changed to: What is wrong with this Federal SARS?
Incidentally, the cybercafé or business centre where the computer typesetting was done belongs to the wife of a retired Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, who has been reading my 13 – year – long column for about ten years. The impression now created by the title alteration is that I am a deceitful and dishonourable person who after leaving their cybercafé went to change the headline of my article to what I originally had in mind.
The irony of it all is that my piece had nothing do with the Police in SARS (Special Anti – Robbery Squad). The law enforcement men who were alleged to have shot and killed ENDSARS protesters in the Lekki toll – gate area of Lagos in the night of Tuesday, October 20 (10 – 10 – 2020), were soldiers. So, it was shocking that someone in the production team changed my title to: What is wrong with this Federal SARS?
It was a dangerous act that could now make coppers in the country, especially SARS men see me as a foe and an ingrate and maybe somebody to be dealt with. This is unfortunate because I have been in cordial relations with men of the Nigeria Police in the last 34 years and they had protected and saved my life twice.
The first was in the 1980s when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord and we carried a story on the arrest of Sunday Osunbor, the second – in – command to Lawrence Anini, the notorious armed robbery – kingpin in Benin city. Through the application of Concord Press Crime Editor, the late Mr. Folorunso Isola, the commissioner assigned a mufti – wearing armed police man to me. He came to my house in the morning and was with me until I returned home at night, while another plain – cloth armed police man stayed overnight in my compound.
The second occasion was in December 1995 when I was the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Akure Local Government (August 25, 1995 – March 31, 1996). The workers were owed salary for four months before I assumed office. But with Christmas approaching and the arrears gone up to six months the officers of the workers’ union decided to kidnap me to get their salary paid. Through their intelligence network the police got information on this. About two hours after I arrived in the office the staff locked the gate. I did not know what was happening until a senior police officer, late Mr. Yekini Adoye, phoned that he was leading a team to the council to rescue me. I had known him in Lagos since 1988 when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord. The police scaled the walls to enter the Council compound and from that day the Police Commissioner for Ondo State assigned a mufti – clad armed police man who reported at my house in the morning and was with me until I returned home in the evening or late in the night. Another police man kept vigil at my place until the following morning. This was on for four months until a week after the end of my tenure when I returned to my base in Lagos in April 1996.
Early in 2012 when there was problem in my area I went to report in the office of the Chief Security Officer to Governor Babatunde Fasola of Lagos State. I was given the names and phone numbers of the Area ‘F’ Commander for Ikeja Command, Assistant Commissioner of Police Noah Adesoyin and his Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr. Charles Nwabuoku who were in charge of my area. The latter handled the matter and got the man arrested, warned him that if he made trouble again he would be picked up and taken to court. The septuagenarian never misbehaved until he died a few years later.
With the close relationship I have had with the police for 34 years, it is obvious that I could not have been behind the castigating caption used last week: “What is wrong with this Federal SARS? Especially given the fact that the police had nothing to do with the fatal incident at the Lekki toll – gate.
If SARS men had attacked me or other people to my knowledge I would not have written to malign them in my column. Rather, I would have reported them to the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Alhaji Musliu Smith, a retired Inspector – General of Police, who is a friend of mine. His father was one of my bosses 53 years ago when I did a vacation job at the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) at Reclamation Street in the Isale – Eko area of Lagos Island.
I believe the person who tampered with the headline of my column last week was a supporter of Senator Bola Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State or that of Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, erstwhile Governor of Edo State or both of them. I also believe that the person acted because he or she was angry with the five – part series I did on their political future from September 30 through October 28.
Apart from the title the person also tampered with the last sentence in the same article. This was the section on the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in 2013 ordering the Federal Government to pay thirty – seven billion naira compensation to the people of Odi in Bayelsa for the destruction of their property by soldiers of the Nigerian Army.
In words, I had thirty – seven billion naira and in brackets I had N37 billion in figures. But the person who altered it removed the seven and turned the fine to N3billion. I got to know of this when Mr. Chimezie Agwu, I hope it got the name right, phoned through GSM number 070 – 8288 – 2568 to ask for the correct amount. I told him it was N37 billion. After our discussion I went to check the script and it was N37 billion that was there, not N3billion.
Tampering with my article began two weeks ago on October 21. The title of the piece published that day was: “Good Restructuring has been added to ENDSARS protest. But to embarrass and ridicule me as someone who does not have proper understanding or usage of English, the person placed a question mark after protest, thus, turning the statement into a question. If the person behind the shenanigan is not an Igbo, then he or she must be against my campaign that the presidency should be conceded to the South – East in 2023.
I joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in July 1971 three years after I graduated from the University of Ibadan and became a journalist. That was 49 years ago. I therefore belong to the group that can be called Senior Journalist of Nigeria (SJN). I started writing a weekly column on part – time basis in a newspaper in April 1974 with the Times International, a weekly magazine published by the Daily Times of Nigeria and I did so for three years. I moved from the electronic to the print media in February 1980 when I joined the newly established Concord Press of Nigeria.
Three months later on May 23, I was promoted to the position of Deputy Editor of the Sunday Concord. Four years later I became the Editor of the weekly and served for five years (March 4, 1984 – May 29, 1989). Consequently, I know all in the practice of print journalism. If I wrote and sent in a news story, the Editor, the News Editor or the Sub – Editor have the right to give it the title they want.
But the Editor, the Features Editor or the Sub – Editor should only change titles, rewrite or delete sentences in an article written by a regular columnist, if they are libelous, abusive, can undermine national unity or cause crisis or chaos. None of the titles of my articles that were changed in the last two weeks fell into any of these exceptions. There was therefore no reason for them to have been altered or substituted.
But I am relieved that the Managing Director and Editor – in – Chief and the Editor of the Daily Sun have assured me such an aberration would not happen again. But it is important for my safety and reputation to let everyone particularly Federal SARS men know that I did not write the inappropriate and repulsive headline used in last week’s column.