First News editor Segun Olatunji has resigned from his position within the media outlet, citing the organization’s apology to Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, as the reason for his departure. The apology stemmed from a story penned by Olatunji, which allegedly resulted in Gbajabiamila’s temporary incarceration.<\/p>\n
In a statement released on Wednesday, May 8, Olatunji attributed his resignation to the company’s stance on his report implicating Gbajabiamila in corrupt activities, and out of concern for the safety of his family. He maintained the veracity of his report despite the organization’s apology.<\/p>\n
Olatunji emphasized his decision, stating, “In view of the latest development regarding the Gbajabiamila story and the stance of the company\u2019s management, I hereby tender my resignation as the General Editor of First News. It has become imperative for me to resign my appointment for the safety of my person and my family.”<\/p>\n
He added, “However, I want to state that in no distant time, the truth will come out, and then it\u2019ll be my word against theirs.”<\/p>\n
The circumstances leading to Olatunji’s resignation were preceded by a troubling event. On Friday, March 15, armed individuals abducted Olatunji from his residence in Lagos, keeping his whereabouts concealed for nearly two weeks. Despite efforts from the Nigerian media community, including appeals to various authorities, Olatunji’s location remained unknown until Wednesday, March 27, when it was discovered that he was detained by the military.<\/p>\n
The International Press Institute (IPI) intervened, urging for Olatunji’s immediate release or transparent legal proceedings if charges were levied against him. Olatunji was eventually released, narrating a harrowing ordeal during his captivity and expressing concerns for his safety and that of his family.<\/p>\n
Following his release, rumors circulated online alleging that Olatunji confessed to fabricating the story about Gbajabiamila in exchange for payment and had issued an apology to the Chief of Staff. However, Olatunji vehemently denied these claims, attributing them to falsehoods propagated by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First News editor Segun Olatunji has resigned from his position within the media outlet, citing the organization’s apology to Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, as the reason for his departure. The apology stemmed from a story penned by Olatunji, which allegedly resulted in Gbajabiamila’s temporary incarceration. In a statement released on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":30651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[59,899],"class_list":["post-30650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","tag-featured","tag-first-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30650"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30674,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30650\/revisions\/30674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}