Gentlemen of the Press
Good afternoon. We welcome you
to this press briefing to set the record straight about Jim Obazee, the Special
Investigator to the CBN who has come under negative attacks by some
publications, trying to defame his person and character since his appointment
on Friday, 28th July 2023.
The offending articles were
published by The Eagle Online, Sahara Reporters, Peoples Gazette, HeadTopics,
and others with evil and malicious campaigns to abuse the minds of the people
so that Obazee can be viewed by members of the public as corrupt and fraudulent
while he was in public service.
In one of the offending
articles against Obazee with the caption ‘Jim Obazee: the many controversies of
Tinubu’s CBN Special Investigator’ The Eagle Online, the publisher chronicled
that Obazee was ordered by the Senate Committee on Public Account to refund to
the Federation Account, N94 million that comprised N66 million paid to Japaul
Oil and Maritime Services for an office space at Japaul Building and the sum of
N28, 765,842.11 raised and paid through 64 payment vouchers without the
internal audit stamps and dates by FRC.
Some in their articles,
particularly, Sahara Reporters, Peoples Gazette, and HeadTopics also painted
him as a criminal, who was convicted of sexual assault, linked to corruption
and siphoning of public funds.
We will not want to waste
energy on the news peddled by these people as the initial publication of the
same is already the subject matter of several suits against three frontline
newspapers in the country, The Guardian, The Punch, and the Daily Independent
pending before the High Court of Edo State, Benin City Judicial Division, Benin
City, Edo State, since 2021 for their libelous Publication against the person
of Mr Obazee as what was then published and then repeated by these present
publishers are false in its entirety. The said civil suits are currently at
Trial Stage and for your information, the details of the Suits are, as follows:
(a) Suit No. B/769/2021 – Jim Osayande Obazee v. Punch Nigeria Limited; (b)
Suit No. B/770/2021 – Jim Osayande Obazee v. Independent Newspaper Limited;
and(c) Suit No. B/885/2021 – Jim Osayande Obazee v. Guardian Newspaper Nigeria
Limited.
Pieces of evidence at the Court
by Sola Oluseyi of Sola Oluseyi & Co, a firm of Estate Surveyors and
Valuers, and also, the Manager of the Japaul Building will exonerate Mr Obazee
from the wrongful accusation on the rent of the building while the 64 invoices
cited in the reports of the three newspapers were issued by the officials of
the FRC in October 2017, nine months after Mr Obazee had left office. It is on
record that Mr. Obazee was removed from office on January 9, 2017, in a
controversial manner by the Federal Government via a media announcement signed
by Garba Shehu from the Presidency; while the 64 vouchers were issued during
the tenure of the Late David Asakpohia, the former Executive Secretary of the
FRC after Mr. Obazee had been relieved of his office. We will stop at this, as the matter is
already in Court but we will take decisive actions permissive in law against
the current peddlers of this news without verification.
On the issue of Conviction for
sexual assault, we state that to date there is no criminal investigation
commenced or criminal charge filed in any court in Nigeria by anybody against
Mr. Jim Obazee. The news was maliciously concocted and captioned to tarnish Mr.
Obazee’s hard-earned image. We challenge
the peddlers of the false and malicious statements to produce the Petition(s)
and Criminal Charge(s) filed against Mr. Obazee as well as the judgment(s) of
the Court convicting or sentencing him for any such criminal offenses. We state
categorically that what Mr. Obazee is aware of is a purely employment-related
civil suit filed at the National Industrial Court by one of the employees of
the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) for wrongful termination and
other claims against FRCN and wherein Mr. Obazee was joined as a party as the
Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Judgment was given in the case and FRCN and Mr.
Obazee have since appealed against the decision of the National Industrial
Court. There was never a criminal charge or conviction of Mr. Obazee in any
court in Nigeria. The news is malicious and false.
The news peddlers also stated
in their publication that Mr. Obazee was linked to corruption, siphoned public
funds into his pocket, took bribes to recommend federal takeover of banks and
removal of Lamido Sanusi as CBN Governor and that EFCC is closely monitoring
him over a legion of Petitions. No mention was made of any particular petition
or petitioner or case file relating to all these spurious allegations of
corruption. We are still waiting for further details from the news peddlers but
there is not yet a single piece of evidence to support their publications.
We had expected this campaign
of calumny against his person because he has refused to be compromised and be
enticed by several carrots being dangled at him to lure him away from the truth
by the sponsors of these publications.
All the peddlers of these
offending articles in The Eagle Online, Sahara Reporters, Peoples Gazette,
HeadTopics, and others have received our strong-worded demands for retraction,
apologies, and damages as the news in their publication are syndicated lies,
untrue information, statements, communications and accounts calculated to
injure and tarnish our client's image, character, credit, reputation and person
before the members of the society to decrease the respect, regard and
confidence in which our client is held in the society.
Our Client, Mr. Obazee, is a
consultant and a global expert in international financial reporting and had
worked in the capacity of the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of
the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), the 29th Chairman of the
International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) of the United
Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Chairman of the National Committee on
Road Map to the Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
in Nigeria and currently appointed as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Special
Investigator by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His
Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
Mr. Jim Obazee was a civil
servant of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and worked with the Financial
Reporting Council of Nigeria (hereinafter referred to as FRC) as Executive
Secretary from the inception of the FRC on June 3, 2011, to January 09, 2017.
Mr. Jim Obazee has carved out a
niche for himself in many professional and personal respects not to deserve
this collateral damage to his reputation by this style of vindictive
journalism. On 4th November 2010, our Client was appointed the Executive
Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board
that was later succeeded by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria by the
enactment of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act, No.6, 2011.
On 12th November 2014, our
Client addressed the World Congress of Accountants (an event that takes place
once every four years) in Italy on “Fighting corruption and Fraud: The role for
Professional Accountants. Our Client, in 2015, chaired the National Committee
on “Top 100 Businesses in Nigeria”; the first and only corporate reward
platform that the Federal Government of Nigeria set up in 2015.
During our Client’s service, he
painstakingly built goodwill and a global reputation arising from his
expertise, dexterity, and innovations in international financial reporting as a
result of which he was decorated with several awards and recognition, including
the following, to mention but a few: “Most Outstanding, Innovative and
Resourceful Financial Czar of the year 2020” by the Prestige International
Magazine Excellence Award in December 2020;
Best Financial Reporting Expert
Personality of the Year 2019; Lagos-Ikeja City Award; Most Outstanding
Financial Personality of the Year 2019: City Pride Achievers’ Award (Nigeria);
The Most Outstanding Personality of the Year 2017; awarded by the International
Centre for Comparative Leadership for Africans and Blacks in Diaspora; Africa
Leader of Integrity Merit Award 2016 (Ghana); Role Model 2016: Nigeria Rising
Award 2016 by Hallmark Newspaper, Nigeria; Africa Best Rated Leadership
Personality of the Year 2016 (Public Sector) (African Development, Ghana);
Award of Excellence for Competence/Distinctiveness in Public Service 2015
(Nigeria Media Nite-Out Award 2015); among others.”
On 9th January 2017, our
Client’s appointment as Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the
Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria was terminated by the Federal Government
of Nigeria via media announcement without any formal letter to that effect. The
announcement, signed by Garba Shehu (from the presidency), also carried the
name of a replacement (of our Client) whose tenure, as announced, should begin
with immediate effect.
Since our Client was relieved
of his appointment, he has continued his business in the Financial Reporting
Service Sector and has engaged in consultancy services in the said sector for
both municipal and international institutions/establishments until recently he
was again appointed the Special Investigator on CBN and other related entities
by the current administration of His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Gentlemen of the Press, It
should be noted that the issue of the authenticity, falsity, or otherwise of
the report of the Senate Committee on Public Account relating to FRC now
published by the News Peddlers, being the gravamen of our Client’s defamation
case against the Newspaper Houses earlier mentioned, is sub-judice being the
subject matter of the suits earlier mentioned, and should not have formed the
basis of any news report until the case in Court is decided one way or the
other. Therefore, it is condemnable and unacceptable that these media houses
are publishing a report that its truth is being challenged in Court.
Furthermore, the news headline
boldly captioned “Convicted of Sexual Assault” where there is no criminal
investigation or charge is condemnable and unacceptable. Without more, the news
is false and untrue. The same headlines boldly captioned “Linked to Corruption”
and “Siphoning Public Fund” are condemnable and unacceptable and false and
untrue. There is no iota of truth in all these reports.
It is, therefore, crystal clear
that the publications of July 31, 2023, by the aforementioned news media to
wit: The Eagle Online, Sahara Reporters, Peoples Gazette, HeadTopics, and
others, were false, untrue, unverified, and calculated to ridicule and drag our
Client’s reputation to the mud. The publications have caused our client and his
immediate family national and international backlash and embarrassment and have
done incalculable damage to him and subjected our client to unspeakable hatred,
opprobrium, ridicule, scandal, and contempt in the eyes of reasonable members
of the public and the entire world.
Finally, let it be known that
these false publications about our Client constitute offenses under Section 373
of the Criminal Code Act and are punishable under Section 375 of the Criminal
Code Act. Section 373 of the Criminal Code Act provides that a defamatory
matter is a matter likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing
him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in his
profession or trade by an injury to his reputation. Such matter may be
expressed in spoken words or any audible sounds, or words legibly marked on any
substance whatever, or by any sign or object signifying such matter otherwise
than by words, and may be expressed either directly or by insinuation or irony.
Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act, also provides that “Subject to the
provisions of this Chapter, any person who publishes any defamatory matter, is
guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year; and any
person who publishes any defamatory matter knowing it to be false, is liable to
imprisonment for two years.
Our Client will explore the
provisions of the law to protect and ventilate his rights appropriately against
the publishers of false and defamatory information, publications, and
statements. They shall face the wrath of the law in due course.
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