The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami has filed a motion at the Federal High Court, urging the court to excuse him from the Peoples Gazette website lawsuit.
Mr Malami, wants the court to remove him from any engagement in damaging the paper’s website by the administration of President Mohammed Buhari.
The AGF claimed he was not informed, nor was he aware of the situation which led to the matter. He said he “was not even aware of the circumstances leading” to the attack.
In his affidavit, in suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/572/2022, Malami is seeking sought the dismissal of the case saying the platform was misinformed of his power.
Background
On January 26, 2021, four months after the Peoples Gazette started publishing, which lured rapid growth and reach for the website, the government of Buhari attacked the website.
The website was blocked as the reader raised an alarm about their inability to access the website between the evening of January 26 and the morning of January 27, 2021.
A few days later, a forensic analysis by Swedish experts at Qurium discovered that the attack was incorporated by Nigerian authorities.
Months later, MTN and 9Mobile, also confirmed in writing that they were instructed to block access to The Gazette by the Buhari regime, and the regulating commission, NCC.
The paper website was informed by a source from the government that the site was restricted due to the publication of a story on the irresponsibility of the son of Ibrahim Gambari, President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff. Mr Gambari.
This was widely condemned and criticized by the Nigerians, as ruthlessness against independent media in Nigeria. While many have since the attack, in 2021, could not access the site except with the use of WiFi or virtual private networks (VPNs).
According to the report, Mr. Gambari called on the paper to delete the post after the publication to safeguard his name and that of his son, Bolaji, but the paper declined.
The chief of staff was enraged by the action and further plotted to figure out the source of the story, which he did. The source was confirmed to be Lai Yahaya, an energy policy adviser to the president, and subsequently was fired.
He went further to institute the restriction on the website shortly after.
The administration official claimed that the blockage was a warning signal to other media outlets in the country.
Malami`s Claim
Malami claims Peoples Gazette was “misinformed on the powers and functions” of his office and its supervision over sprawling federal establishments” in suit before Justice Obiora Egwuatu.
Malami told the court that the restriction was an action taken by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, and the agency should be able to take up the charge.
He is asking the court to either remove his name from the suit or dismiss the suit in it’s entity because of the appearance of his name.
He said “In the light of the totality of the above submissions made up and authorities cited, we urge the Honorable Court to dismiss the suit in its entirety as it relates to” the attorney-general “or in the alternative strike out the name” of the attorney-general from the suit, Maimuna Lami Shiru, director of civil litigation and public law at the attorney general’s office.”
Malami continued by stressing that the NCC has the power to determine such action by the stipulated guides to national security, as written in the constitution.
NCC`s Argument
NCC also argued that their action was taken in other to abide by the principle that holds on national security.
In a separate submission, the AGF, the NCC, MTN, 9Mobile and Airtel falsely submitted that the news platform was not registered under Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission, but the lawyer to the platform had later provided evidence of its cooperate status.
“Our expectation was that the agencies would show the court a single story published by our organisation that drifted outside the Nigerian Constitution,” Deputy Managing Editor Boladale Adekoya said about the filings of Mr. Malami and other defendants in the lawsuit.
“Their failure to come forward with even an infraction plainly informed their resort to desperate tactics and underscores how our paper has been rigorous and lawful in pursuit of its courageous journalism.” Mr. Boladale said.
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Court’s Decision
The court ordered the government and the telcos to remove the restriction on the website, along with payment of damages following the lawsuit against them by the Gazette’s legal team, which was led by Lagos-based rights attorney Inibehe Effiong.
The lawsuit is meant to last beyond Buhari’s administration, which is subject to end on May 29, 2023. And as the adjournment of the matter till June 13, it’s become more difficult to determine if the next administration of Tinubu would welcome the case.
