Published 1st Aug, 2024

By FIJ

Rasheedat Abiodun Adu, Chairperson, Iru-Victoria Island Local Council Development Area (LCDA), on Thursday offered a bribe of N50,000 to journalists covering the #EndBadGovernance protests at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos.

Journalists in attendance took the money, save Emmanuel Uti, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), and Mayowa Durosinmi, a reporter with West Africa Weekly.

Adu offered the monetary through one of her aides who had accompanied her to the venue of the protest.

The aide stood by her as she addressed the press, urging protesters to hand President Bola Tinubu more time, arguing that he had put in place some “policy implementations”.

“We need to be patient to allow him execute these things,” she said.

“Now, autonomy for local governments. We had been agitating for this for quite a number of years; and to the glory of God, when this man came on board, he has been able to achieve it.”

West Africa Weekly and @FIJNigeria reporters at Lekki Toll Plaza reject N50,000 bribe to write pro-government stories. Other reporters accept. pic.twitter.com/Lmsl1Vsk6k
— West Africa Weekly (@WestAfricaWeek) August 1, 2024

With a long, brown envelope in hand, the man whose name is not known said, “My Oga has something for you guys. Don’t video me.”

The envelope was then presented to a woman with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), who then asked a reporter who identified himself as a freelancer with Twenty20 Media Limited to collate the names of reporters on the ground.

FIJ’s Emmanuel Uti and West Africa Weekly’s Mayowa Durosinmi asked the collator to strike the names of their organisations off the list because they wanted no bribe.

Media houses whose names appear on the list are NTA, Lagos Television, News Central, and a number of lesser-known platforms.

The #EndBadGovernance protests began on August 1 and are scheduled to last until August 10.

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