By Our Correspondent
Outgoing Speaker of the Gombe state House of Assembly, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, wants N205 million paid for what he themed damage to his personality and integrity from a National Daily, following a report published by the paper on Tuesday April 28, 2015 captioned: “Gombe Speaker orders the removal of boreholes in Garin Bappi.”
The speaker, who announced this at a press conference in Gombe yesterday, said the said the report was false as no borehole had been uprooted in his constituency.
He said rather there were already ongoing projects worth N40 million at various wards within his constituency as his personal donation to his people.
Yahaya, who is also past Chairman Conference of Speakers of Nigeria, vowed to take the case to court to claim damages, unless the newspaper organisation in question, apologised in the same manner the story was published.
He said based on his personal findings, over 15 million people all over the world had read the story through various media channels, and that the amount he was demanding for damage “does not stand worthy of one per cent” of his integrity.
Earlier, the journalist who reported the story had issued a complaint before Gombe state Police Command, saying the speaker had issued a threat to him through a GSM call.
According to him, the speaker had threatened to deal with him in any form, and that he threatened to drag him to court.
But the speaker denied issuing any threat, even as he admitted that he only threatened to take the matter to court.
Also, the chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Gombe state Council, Alhassan Yahaya, said he had inaugurated a committee to look into the matter after which necessary action would be taken.