LASG Decries Criminal Usage of Crest in Defamatory Advertorial

The Lagos state government has decried what it described as illegal usage of its crest in a defamatory advertorial.

In a statement by the Commissioner for Information, Aderemi Ibirogba, the government warned media houses to desist from such act or face a legal action.

The statement reads: “The attention of the Lagos State Government has been drawn to a criminal forgery and pure defamation published in the guise of an advertorial on an alleged meeting of an

“ACN – CPC Coalition purportedly attended by several notable personalities in Lagos and bearing the Lagos State Government crest insinuating that the advertorial emanated from the Lagos State Government.

“It is highly regrettable that despite the fact that the Leadership Newspaper which first published the offensive advertorial on Page 52 of its Monday, May 28, 2012, edition, apologised and published a retraction of the criminal advertorial in the edition of Tuesday, May 29, 2012, the offensive material again appeared in the Thursday, May 31, 2012 editions of National Mirror (Page 45) and of THISDAY (Page 36E) Newspapers.

“The Lagos State Government, hereby, once again, deny any knowledge of or association with the said advertorial and condemn outright its wicked, malicious, defamatory and damaging contents as well as the forgery in using the name and purported signature of the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor.

“While we demand a retraction of the criminal publication, we also warn that any further use of the advertorial, either whole or in part, by any media house, will attract legal action against such media house. We also urge the media to be mindful of materials placed with them for publication, even as advertorial, as ignorance is no excuse in law.”