The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has denied reports (not by Channels Television) that he forced the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, to resign.
In a statement on Wednesday by EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale, Olukoyede faulted a report by an online portal, People’s Gazette, alleging that he allegedly abducted Ojulari and forced him to resign in Abuja.
The EFCC boss demanded a retraction of the story from the online platform and a public apology within 48 hours.
Though there have been reports about Ojulari’s resignation, the NNPCL boss, the state-owned company and the presidency haven’t commented on the development.
On Monday, amid his rumoured resignation, Ojulari attended a Society of Petroleum Engineers event in Lagos where he advised Africa to come up with bankable energy projects as one of the ways of ensuring a sustainable energy future.
Refuting reports that he forced Ojulari to resign on Wednesday, the EFCC boss described the report as uncharitable and capable of casting him in the mould of someone who has “betrayed and subverted public trust”.
Olukoyede said his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), had written to the online platform that “the publications and the imputations conveyed by them are so damning and cannot be ignored or treated with levity”.
He, therefore, demanded that the medium “acknowledge your wrongdoing, expressly admit that what you published and imputed against my client are false, apologise for it unreservedly and retract and pull down the stories from your newspaper website and social media handles”.
Olukoyede’s lawyer warned that any failure of compliance with his instructions would result in the issuance of a “Writ in the tort of defamation to allow you to prove what your disparagement of my client’s character and reputation, especially in the way of the office he holds as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission”.