Management of Blueprint Newspapers Limited has apologised to the Department of State Service (DSS) over an online story the paper published, portraying the secret police as meddling in the affairs of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA).
In the said story published on February 17, 2025, it was alluded that the agency invaded the premises of the Lagos House of Assembly in an attempt to prevent the members from gaining access, and locked the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker’s Offices before the plenary.
Reacting through a letter by Lead Counsel to the DSS, Adedipe and Adedipe, the secret police demanded retraction and apology for misleading the general public on the operatives’ presence at the premises of the state legislature.
The Editorial Director of the newspaper, Mr. Clem Oluwole, in a letter, dated March 19, 2025, said: “We have since realised that the presence of your client at the premises of the Assembly was at the behest of the acting Clerk vide a letter dated 14th of February, 2025, to support security operatives attached to the complex in order to forestall an imminent breakdown of law and order.
“The Management of Blueprint Newspapers Limited wishes to assure your client for which we have been partners in progress in the 14 years of our existence as a credible and responsible media organisation, that no malice was intended in any form by that publication. We know the implications of bringing such a critical institution to disrepute and public ridicule. By this letter, we fully retract the publication.
“We sincerely apologise to the DSS and also regret the embarrassment the misleading publication might have caused the organisation.”
The management assured that, as a professional media organisation established to foster peace, unity, growth and development of the country, Blueprint will at all times avail itself to partnering with strategic agencies of government in order to ensure Nigeria retains its rightful place in the comity of nations.