The cobwebs should have cleared from the eyes of anyone previously in
doubt about the shady dealings of online hitman and publisher of Sahara
Reporters, Omoleye Sowore, who was this week arrested over an alleged
threat to life and blackmail of a London-based journalist, Lekan
Fatodun. For those unfamiliar with Sowore’s activities, he is that chap
that has been severally accused of desecrating the sanctity of the
journalistic profession with his practice of cash for publication and
blackmail.
He had remained beyond the reach of the law, criminal
or civil, by strategically registering his operations in the United
States where the victim of his blackmail and extortion racket find it
difficult, if not impossible to bring lawsuits against him. The second
layer of protection Sowore enjoys in peddling his tainted merchandise is
the exploitation of the reader’s innocence that made him and his site,
Sahara Reporters, appear like entities that are committed to exposing
corruption. At such whenever the issue of his criminality is raised
there is a horde on the ready to pour further abuses on his victims who
are often accused of attempting to stifle freedom of expression by
gagging the news site that exposes corruption.
However, this
cannot be further from the truth. If Sowore’s Sahara Reporters is a
whistleblowing anti-corruption platform then ISIS and Al-Qaeda are
working for world peace. There have been several instances, discussed
only in hushed tones since the victims are often themselves without
blames, when stories are published after public office holders tried
calling Sowore’s bluff.
There have also been allegations of
damaging materials hitting the cyberspace even after the target of the
smear campaign had previously “settled” but subsequently fails to outbid
his political adversaries who paid more to have the material published.
All these toxic stuff are lapped up by undiscerning readers, whose
bitterness against the system does not allow them the reasoning capacity
to ask probing questions about the veracity of what they read.
State institutions are not insulated in this high-level blackmail network.
The
much needed journalistic role of beaming the searchlight on public
entities is perverted and converted into an extortion racket such that
the Chief Executives that refuse to “cooperate” are demonised while the
credibility of their institutions are destroyed. It was a matter of time
before the “boys” wised up and running online news sites became a
money-spinning machine – like Sahara Reporters, foreign saboteurs are
either financing the sites to undermine Nigeria or the publishers
threaten people with the publication of documents if specific ransoms
are not paid. That is definitely not a legacy to bequeath a nation’s new
media space.
This party would have gone on without interruption
had Sowore known to leave well alone. Dogs should not eat dogs but
someone emboldened by successively blackmailing politically exposed
persons can scarcely resist the temptation of trying to shake down a
fellow ‘publisher’ in the hope of making further windfall from the famed
armsgate money. He consequently made a false call on Lekan Fatodu who
is the publisher of Checkout International Magazine.
Fatodu wrote
on his Facebook wall, ”I just got Sowore Omoyele of Saharareporters
arrested for criminal defamation and blackmail and threat to my life and
career. Sowore lied against me that I was used as a front to receive
N1.7 billion of the National Security Adviser’s funds. My refusal to
agree to Sowore’s demands and cut from the fictitious money made him to
viciously attack my personality on his website. And imagine this is
someone I’ve known and I’ve been assisting for almost 20 years. We are
still at the police station, and hopefully we be going to the court
tomorrow.”
For the sake of fairness, which Sowore’s many victims
never enjoyed, one must acknowledge that the Sahara Reporters’ publisher
claimed that “After the police “intervened” soon as I was attacked by
Lekan Fatodu and his friends in Lagos, we were taken to the
(Commissioner of Police) CP’s office. It turned out that the CP was in
on this, he pulled out a supposed petition written by Lekan from his hat
after that he became very hostile towards me and ordered that we be
driven to State CID, at Panti. It is obvious that this was planned
between Lekan Fatodu and the police. ’’
A few things have been confirmed from the two accounts. One, Fatodu’s
revelation has proven what has always been said about that scum
publication. It exists only to arm twist politicians into parting with
money. If Fatodu truly laundered the armsgate money for politicians and
Sowore has the facts one would expect that he should hit the headlines
with it or turn in the information to the EFCC.
Secondly, as some
writers had claimed before, the New York address for both Sowore and
Sahara Reporters is a scam. He allegedly sneaks into Nigeria, on a
fortnightly basis sometimes, on a collection round since the blackmail
money received in dollars has to be physically retrieved so that there
would be no trail to trigger the interest of US law enforcement
agencies.
Thirdly, it has now emerged that anyone that calls
Sowore’s bluff faces more than the risk of having damaging contents
published about them. They could also become targets of assassination as
the complaint of threat to life that was lodged with the police has
proven.
Additionally, familiarity or close relations with Sowore
offers no protection when it is time for him to unleash blackmail. Not
even 20 years of being kindred spirits can insulate one from his greed
and if breaking the law would make his victim pay up so be it.
Furthermore,
Sowore’s account of event has proven that whatever content the
unfortunate readers of his site have consumed in the past years consist
more of lies than truth. Whatever facts are included are intended to
serve the kind of functions that colouring, sweetener and flavourings
serve in junk food – to disguise the poor quality ingredients that make
up the bulk of the sweet poison.
He simply went on to continue the
aggression he has pursued against the Nigerian Police as an institution
and even told a lie as ridiculous as “he (Commissioner of Police)
pulled out a supposed petition written by Lekan from his hat”. Except
Sowore wants to claim this was intended figuratively, what law
enforcement officer will keep a petition on threat to life in his hat?
He
accused the police of colluding with Fatodu. This was to be expected.
Fortunately, there are positives. Fatodu is not a public official or the
headline would have been that the government has clamped down on
freedom of the press. His accuser is of the same ethnic extraction and
possibly of the same faith so the other parochial excuses will not fly.
This
hangman and professional character assassin has personally walked
himself to judgment and the police must escort him to the dock. Some of
his followers have sought to make light of the situation by bandying the
phrase “civil case” around. Blackmail and threat to life are criminal
matters not civil cases that should me subjected to mediation. The
police will thus do well to resist the temptation of succumbing to
pressure to order a mutual settlement between Fatodu and Sowore, whose
countless victims should by this development gain the boldness to come
forward and confidentially furnish information about how they were
blackmailed in the past.
The time to act is now and giving this
character a chance to explore his second strike capabilities would be
disastrous not just for the media but for those he has threatened with
any form of violence. It is time to retire this hangman. Owners of other
sites that operate on his model should take this as notice of their
retirement. He is a demon.
For Sowore, the noose he is in the
habit of putting around his victims’ necks now tightens around him. That
aura of invisibility has been dissipated and the true identity of the
human behind the masquerade unveiled. Even if Sowore talks himself out
of this Syrian bind of a mess the point has been proven that Sahara
Reporters is not a ghost site and like every media outfit the
organisation and the goons behind it are accountable for their deeds
before law enforcement, in court and here on earth.
– Philip Agbese writes from Abuja.
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