The Management of NATIONAL NEWSPOINT magazine wishes to use this opportunity to alert the general public about our travails since we started investigating a sensitive story on multi-billionaire businessman Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal, which happens to be the cover choice of our current edition.
We also wish to use this opportunity to cry out over attempts to get us to compromise our journalism ethics, and the desperation of some people claiming to be working for Alhaji Mangal who, having failed in their bid to buy us over, have resorted to cheap blackmail and even threats “to deal” with us.
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May we at this juncture warn that if anything untoward should happen to any of those connected with NATIONAL NEWSPOINT, Alhaji Mangal and his agents should be held responsible.
For those who do not know, Alhaji Mangal is the business-cum political behemoth who calls the shots at AFDIN Group (Nigeria) Limited, the holding company of his vast business empire that includes but is not limited to Max Airlines, AFDIN Construction Company Nigeria Limited, Manasawa Oil, Mangal Oil, and Manasawa Enterprises. He is one of the richest men in Nigeria and in Africa, and is dreaded by many on account of his mind-boggling wealth and his closeness to Nigeria’s President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Sometimes in October last year, we got information that Alhaji Mangal is not only a smuggling kingpin but also allegedly an adulterer who has abandoned his mistress and the son she had for him to their fate. Even though the information came from people who know Alhaji Mangal very well, we did not leave anything to chance but decided to launch painstaking investigations into the allegation.
In this regard, we dispatched a Special Correspondent to Katsina who, after persistent efforts, was able to track down Mangal’s mistress and son, obtain their photographs and also to interview them. We shall release a transcript of the interview if it becomes necessary to do so.
We made efforts to reach Alhaji Mangal for his comments but were told that he had traveled out of the country. Based on the advice of Alhaji Mangal’s image makers, we decided to wait for his return before going to press. But rather than convince Alhaji Mangal to state his own side of the story on his return to the country, his agents started making overtures to us, promising to refund the money we spent on the story and on the advance copies of the edition if we would drop the story. They also promised us a year’s advert placement as proof that they wished to enter into a lasting, mutually beneficial professional relationship with us and mouth watery contract with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Abuja.
We played along pretending to be interested, in order to allow Alhaji Mangal and his agents to fully expose their dirty tricks. Then all of a sudden we started hearing talks of blackmail and of attempt to exploit the story to make pecuniary gains. We do not only vehemently deny these spurious claims but dare Alhaji Mangal and his agents to produce any iota of evidence that we received even a kobo from them so as to kill the story.
We wish to make it clear that never at any time did we either directly or through any agents seek to extort money from Alhaji Mangal. NATIONAL NEWSPOINT is published by reputable people known within Nigeria and internationally. We are jealous about this good reputation and will not do anything to tarnish it. Not even a million Mangals can get us to do that.
Rather than run from one security agency to the other in a desperate bid to intimidate the press, and rather than buying off copies of “offensive” publications from vendors so as to prevent the general public from reading them, Alhaji Mangal and his agents should learn to use every available opportunity to state their case. That is the path of honour. And as honourable men who believe strongly in the ethics of journalism, we will graciously publish their reaction if indeed they have anything to say.
We rest our case.
Signed: HOPE UMUNNA
For: MANAGEMENT
NATIONAL NEWSPOINT
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