A policeman who identified himself as ASP Jide has accused FIJ of attempting to blackmail Insight Communications and Banji Omotayo, an advertising agent.
Jide, who said he was attached to the Idimu Police Station in Lagos State, called FIJ’s Daniel Ojukwu on Monday to say he wanted to question the reporter physically over reports on how the advertising agency failed to pay hired actors for four months and how Omotayo was using the police to harass one of these actors.
He said FIJ was blackmailing the company and attempting to defame Omotayo.
“Come to the station to clear your name,” Jide told Ojukwu on the phone. “We have the actor and the agent here with us. You are Gistlover, blackmailing and defaming the company and the man.”
READ MORE: Insight Communications, an Ad Agency, Owes Actors Who Starred in FCMB Advert in May
FIJ asked if he had read the reports, but he replied, “I just glanced through. I have sent someone to go print it for me now”.
In the report, FIJ documented how, on August 9, Kayode Ajayi, a representative of the agency, confirmed to the newspaper that they owed actors. Ajayi also said the client for whom they shot the advertisement approved the copy. Despite this approval, the company failed to pay the actors one month after the approval, as stated in the contract.
READ MORE: Lagos Police Detain Actor for ‘Reporting Insight Communications Debt to Press’ — Not Them
Omotayo, who helped the agency recruit the actors, took offence with them for going public three months after payment deadline and threatened to show up at the doorstep of Emmanuel Ugwunna, an actor he believes contacted FIJ.
Since Tuesday, he and the Idimu police have been inviting Ugwunna to the station because, according to them, Ugwunna “did not do well by going to the press to report the matter instead of coming to us”.
Meanwhile, on Monday, FIJ called Gladys Faniyi, Idimu DPO, and she said she was oblivious of Jide’s invitation to the reporter. She said she would look into the matter.
The police continue to use the legal definition of criminal defamation to arrest and harass members of the public. In recent times, they have used it to abduct, detain and subject journalists to inhumane treatment.
The post Lagos Policeman Accuses FIJ of Blackmail — for Asking Insight Communications to Pay Owed Actors appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.