Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare petitions IGP over a sport journalist’s claim that he benefits from the LCC

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Adamu Mohammed, to investigate Sylvanus Ofekun for allegedly defaming him making inciteful comments capable of threatening national security.

According to the petition which was submitted to the IGP on February 16, the Minister alleged that Ofekun, a sports journalist with the moniker “Sleeky Sly” on social media, accused him of daily benefitting from Lagos Concession Company (LCC), operators of the Lekki Tollgate, which has been shut down since the October 20 gunshot incident.

The petition, in part, reads.

“Our client was surprised when Mr. Sylvanus Ofekun, also known as Sleeky Sly, published unfounded and baseless allegations of corruption against our client through direct reference and innuendo.

Mr. Ofekun is a sports journalist who currently plies his trade with Kiss FM radio station, Abuja. The summary of the allegations was to the effect that our client was receiving constant revenues from the LCC, the managers of the Lekki Tollgate. Our client was, therefore, alleged to have deployed governmental resources to reopen the tollgate for personal profit.

According to the publication, evidence of our client’s receipt of funds from LCC could be found in bank statements, which were attached. A cursory look at the said bank statements will show that the transactions contained therein are between LCC and Loatsad Media and our client’s name did not appear in any of the transactions.

The facts can be gleaned from the public records available at relevant government agencies that our client has since 2017 relinquished all interests he had at Loatsad Promomedia Limited (as it was then known) and stepped down from its Board of Directors. It is, therefore, clear that not only were the allegations false, they were published with malice aforethought with the intent to disparage our client.”