Billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim, has defended accusations of his penchant to fire reporters and editors at his whim and caprice.
Mr. Ibrahim, a lawyer, is the publisher of Newswatch and National Mirror newspapers, two Lagos based national dailies.
In June last year, Mr. Ibrahim fired a features editor on his Newswatch stable for a story on T.B Joshua, the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations.
The move was seen by many as a testimony of his high-handed attitude of arbitrarily firing members of staff in his organization.
But in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Ibrahim insisted that due process was followed before the reporter was sacked.
“Did he tell you they didn’t give him query? They told you lies. If you publish that now and I go to court and I show to court the copy of the query, will you not pay us damages?” Mr. Ibrahim said.
“If you are given query why you wrote wrong story about somebody, I will not allow you to go and collect money from people and be writing bad stories about them. If you write something against somebody and the person did not do it, and they show us. We’ll give you query and if you answer our query and it’s not ok, we’ll fire you,” Mr. Ibrahim said.
“The story is that he wrote a wrong story against somebody and he was investigated, he apologized after. If they don’t tell you the truth, what do you want Mirror to do. What is the story in all of this one you are asking me?
“Is it today…didn’t they sack them in Punch? You don’t read the Punch every day where they put an advert and say that in Punch we don’t give money out for story to be published. So if you go and collect money and publish story in front page, what do I do with you? I disgrace you.”
Source: Premium Times
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