On behalf of the Management of LEADERSHIP Group, the Publisher of LEADERSHIP Newspapers, I write to tender an unreserved apology to the Management of The Punch over an opinion article, “Saraki’s Case: The Real Inside Story,” which was published on the online platform of LEADERSHIP (www.leadership.ng) on September 21, 2015. The opinion article, which was written by one of our online contributors/ bloggers, Bashir Akanbi, erroneously opined that The Punch had been carrying out media onslaughts against the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki for former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu because the latter owned a controlling interest in The Punch.

Nothing can be farther from the truth than this falsehood. We hold The Punch in high esteem, and will never maliciously attempt to bring to disrepute a brand that has created a niche for itself in the media industry through credibility and integrity. We regret the embarrassment the published article has caused the Management of The Punch. Asiwaju Tinubu is not a shareholder of The Punch, let alone owning a controlling interest in the company.
As we tender this unreserved apology, we have also taken some stringent measures to ensure that this ugly scenario does not repeat itself. First, we have pulled out the article from the website and destroyed all the backlinks, including Facebook and Twitter. This means that the article can no longer be accessed, as it was published only on www.leadership.ng. Second, we have suspended the blogger. Going forward, the Online Editor will thoroughly scrutinise articles by bloggers and contributors.

Once again, please accept our apology and highest regards!