Baba Issa, a professor and Chief Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Budo-Egba, Kwara State, has been blackmailing Emmanuel Dare to publish a public apology for no good reason.

This is after FIJ reported how the hospital denied Dare, a bona fide applicant, a social welfare officer position despite giving him an appointment letter on April 29.

Since FIJ ran the story, Issa has been telling Dare and his family to pressurise FIJ into deleting its report, if he must secure a job placement at the hospital. He also wants Dare to publish an apology letter for exposing the injustice done to him.

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Issa and the hospital claim they want to settle amicably, but they also want Dare to recant the truth. They have told Dare he won’t get his job without a public apology for reporting what had transpired.

Dare told FIJ about the hospital management’s wish to pull down the earlier report on May 19. He voiced his fear of losing an opportunity to work at the hospital forever.

Jide Akinteye, Dare’s pastor, confirmed that he was at the meeting with Dare’s parents. Akinteye told FIJ that Issa was present and made the request to publish an apology.

“I read FIJ’s report too. Thank you very much. The professor too, the CMD of the hospital, was at the meeting. We have settled the matter,” Akinteye told FIJ on Saturday.

“What they said is that we should republish the matter and apologise. They said that it is the same person that published it that should do it again. That was what they told us. They are in the process of enlisting him back because they want to do another capturing.

“The only thing that can delay his own capturing is this apology which must be done by the same journalist. That’s the condition given to us.”

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Dare had secured the social welfare officer role and received an invitation in February to come for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information System (IPPIS) documentation in March.

It was when he visited the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Budo-Egba that the officials, including Issa, told him he had no job despite receiving an appointment letter.

Dare told FIJ that he did everything the authorities asked the applicants to do. He had resigned from his previous job after getting his appointment letter.

Neither Issa nor the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Budo-Egba, had responded to FIJ’s messages to them at press time. The hospital management refused to communicate directly with this journalist.