Diezani Alison-Madueke, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, has requested the court to stop the APC, 10 other individuals and organizations from further reporting on the controversial missing $20billion oil money.
Alison-Madueke sought and obtained an interim injunction restraining the parties involved from “publishing or causing to be published any further defamatory statements,” stating or suggesting that the minister “stole, misappropriated or colluded in the stealing of $20billion crude oil revenue involving Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.”
The defendants in the case are the All Progressives Congress, APC, Vanguard Media Limited and its editor, Mideno Bayagbon; Leadership Newspapers Group Limited and its editor Ekele Peter Agbo; Premium Times Services Limited and its editor in chief, Dapo Olorunyomi, and Vintage Press Limited and its editor, Lekan Otufodunrin. Also joined in the application were the National Broadcasting Corporation and the Nigerian Press Council.
Justice A. Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, directed the two government regulators to ensure Alison-Madueke is not linked in any report regarding the alleged missing $20 billion either on broadcast media, internet, print or radio.
