Lawyers, Youth Leaders Allege Global Media War Against Aiteo

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A group of lawyers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as well as leaders of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities yesterday raised the alarm over an alleged international media smear campaign against indigenous oil company, Aiteo, and its owner, Mr. Benedict Peters.

Coming under the consortium of Lawyers for Human Rights and Justice (LHRJ), and Council of Ethnic Youth Leaders of Nigeria (CEYLN), the group specifically fingered The Washington Post of the United States as the arrowhead of the media war against the company.

In a joint press conference by the different groups in Abuja, which was attended by many youths from various ethnicities, the coalition noted that the allegations being peddled against Peters and Aiteo were the same issues which have already been conclusively determined by courts of competent jurisdiction or pending in the court.

Several documents allegedly linking a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dieziani Alison-Madueke, and a number of operators in the Nigerian oil industry have been in the public space as well as in local and international courts since the former minister exited the government.

The consortium was represented by its joint Convener, Mr. Tochukwu Ohazuruike; Convener, Consortium of LHRJ, Mr. Peter Abang; President, Middle Belt Youth Council, Godwin Meliga, as well as Secretary-General and Head of Coalition Secretariat, Ohanaeze Youth Movement, Mr. Nwada Chiamaka.

Others were President of Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, Mallam Kabiru Yusuf; representative of Oduduwa Youth Council, Opeodu Oluwadamilola; representative of Niger Delta Council of Youths, Mr. Bassey Henshaw, and the Executive Director, African Centre for Justice and Human Rights, Chinwendu Edede.

While alleging that the purpose of the publication was only to impugn the integrity of Peters and the company, the coalition noted that several of the questions Mr. Peter Whoriskey of The Washington Post inquired about had been resolved by a competent court of law in Nigeria, and the decision widely publicised.

In the group’s address which was read by Ohazuruike and endorsed by all the members, the consortium stressed that a simple internet search could have availed Whoriskey of the judgment of the case and the present state of affairs.

It emphasised that some of the posers were directly extracted from untested allegations contained in a first amended verified complaint filed before the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

The group of lawyers, CSOs and ethnic youth leaders called on media houses not to yield their platforms to people whose objectives are not noble and would as such encourage unhealthy business rivalry.

According to them, “There is a plethora of questions which The Washington Post has to answer and which directly call to question its genuineness in permitting this to happen.

“It will be damning to the long-held image of The Washington Post that its staff members have yielded the platform of the medium to the use for a global smear campaign and unhealthy business rivalry.

“Aiteo boss, Peters, has stated severally that he has never received any favour by way of facilitation or otherwise from Dieziani Alison-Madueke, and there was therefore nothing to be grateful for. He has severally denounced any such attempt to link the purchase of his property with the former minister under such premises.

“His purchase of the furniture was in furtherance of his desire to furnish a property that belonged to him, and those furniture can be found, even today, at his said property at 58 Harley House.

“No furniture that belonged to him can be found at any other place other than in his property. The furniture found at the UK address of Dieziani Alison-Madueke does not belong to him and certainly could not have been the same found in his said property at 58 Harley House.”

Ohazuruike advised such persons like Whoriskey, who would in the future want to regurgitate the same issues, that the answers are already available in the public space, and that Aiteo and Peters have nothing to hide.

The coalition further accused Bloomberg earlier in the year for acting on a purported assignment to investigate and publish material derived from official and personal information about Aiteo Eastern E and P and its founder, thereby yielding itself to be used by faceless and nefarious entities who had instigated a media smear campaign against the company.

According to the coalition, it will be damning to the long-held image of The Washington Post that its staff members have yielded the platform of the medium to the use for a global smear campaign and unhealthy business rivalry.

“The truth, however, is that the Mr. Peters has been in the oil and gas industry for over 26 years. Peters is the founder of the Aiteo group, an integrated global focused-Nigerian energy conglomerate comprising of a number of corporate entities that provide jobs and enhance meaningful indigenous participation in the energy sector previously monopolised by International Oil Companies (IOCs).

“It is public knowledge that Peters and his companies have had and currently maintain successful, strategic and significant banking relationships with Nigerian banks. Some documents evidencing these relationships and transactions are available in the public domain too.

“We hope that these answers would satisfy Whoriskey and get him to alert his sponsors that the plot is dead on arrival and cannot be revived. We also say to all such persons who would in the future want to regurgitate these issues that the answers are already available and there is nothing hidden,” the coalition stated.