N90bn polls fund: Osinbajo Writes Google To Remove ‘Defamatory Publication’ From YouTube

By Kunle Akinsola

The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has reacted to a video published by Roots TV on the video-sharing website, YouTube, alleging that he stacked public funds from some government agencies under his supervision for 2023 presidential poll, describing it as “ill-founded, false and untrue”.

He has, therefore, written a petition through his solicitors, Femi Atoyebi & Co, to Google Nigeria, demanding the removal and/or suspension of the video.

It reads:“It is our understanding that you have provided a platform through which an account holder named RootsTV Nigeria, an online news platform that is available through this link… is able to continuously broadcast defamatory contents.

“In the broadcast published on the accounts of RootsTV Nigeria on September 20, 2019, the following incorrect statements and untruths were made:

“ A. Our Client was stacking up public funds from agencies directly under his supervision, with a strong insinuation that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was the principal organ by which the alleged fraud was perpetrated.

“B. Our Client was unable to explain the alleged imbalance and discrepancies on the account of the FIRS on the interrogation of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari.

“C. Our Client was unable to explain the alleged failed disbursement to all beneficiaries under the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government in Adamawa State.’’

The solicitors said the publication is “undoubtedly a barefaced attempt to unfairly discredit and expose our client to contempt and ridicule in the estimation of right-thinking members of the society”.

They said there was never any time that Osinbajo had been linked with any act of corruption in his decades in private and public services.

“It is therefore an untruth that our client was illegally stacking monies for agencies to finance his alleged 2023 presidential ambition.

“Our Client, therefore, demands that you immediately remove and/or suspend the publication/broadcast of the defamatory publication on the account of RootsTV Nigeria on the platform of YouTube.”