𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐌 𝐁𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 I usually ignore name calling because it is not worthy of attention that could otherwise be deployed productively. However, I am responding to this as a matter of public interest and hopefully to help other media organisations with similar tendencies. Peoples Gazette published a malicious article claiming that I lied about certain provisions of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act. The accusation is false, reckless, and not supported by anything I said during the referenced TV interview. It started with a WhatsApp message which I received from Peoples Gazette. Rather than wait for my response, they rushed to publish their accusation just after their first message below. 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: Good afternoon, Mr Ayodele. We followed your interview on Arise TV yesterday but found that you goofed and misrepresented the facts in the tax law. Contrary to your claims, Section 61 of the new law empowers the FIRS to seize Nigerians' money, properties without court order, for not paying taxes. 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐰𝐨 𝐎𝐲𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞: I will ignore your rude language since you obviously didn't understand my simple explanation. Send a screen recording of where I said what you claim. And my name is Oyedele, not Ayodele. 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: I know that your name is “Oyedele,” that was probably a typographical error. However, I wasn’t being rude to you, Mr Ayodele. During your December 24th interview on Arise TV, you claimed that the tax man (FIRS) cannot just seize people’s assets or money. This claim is contrary to the provisions in Sections 61 and 43 of the tax law. Here’s a clip from your interview: x.com/onejoblessboy/… 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐰𝐨 𝐎𝐲𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞: You can check the meaning of goof if that helps. If you're truly a professional journalist you won't jump into conclusion without due diligence. All you needed to do was watch about 2 minutes in the interview before the clip you shared, from the point the question was asked. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 My explanation clearly stated that enforcement actions do not arise in a vacuum. There is a process under the existing law which hasn’t changed – a taxpayer is entitled to self assessment, while the tax authority may issue an additional assessment to which the taxpayer has the right of objection, until the tax becomes final and conclusive under an appeal framework that involves the courts, up to the Supreme Court where applicable. Peoples Gazette’s allegation relies on a short excerpt taken mid-response, stripped of the question and the explanation that immediately preceded it. Here is the full interview: youtu.be/GqhHq5XKr6A?si… Responsible journalism requires due diligence, full context, and professionalism especially on a matter that is capable of misleading the public. Even if I said what they claimed, someone acting in good faith could have said “wrong” instead of “lied” but it was obviously intentional to gain the attention of their unsuspecting followers and get the clicks. Falsehood may travel fast but only the truth can go far.
