DSS Demands Retraction, Apologies From AIT, Channels Over Lagos Assembly Stories
The Department of State Services (DSS) has written and issued notice to two television stations demanding a retraction of a story aired on Monday, February 17, 2025 over an alleged invasion of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA).
The two media organisations are Channels Television and African Independent Television owned by DAAR Communications Plc as well as other media platforms.
The DSS, in a letter by its legal counsel, Mr Ayodeji Adedipe, SAN, dated February 17, 2025, titled; “False, Defamatory and Malicious Publication Concerning the State Security Service (aka DSS) Regarding Their Presence at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday February 17, 2025,” demanded a retraction of the story and an apology from the two media houses.
DAAR communications acknowledgement
Counsel to the DSS further stated in the letter that even when it was clear that, following fears that hoodlums could attack the lawmakers, and the fact that it was the Clerk of the Assembly that invited the DSS and police personnel to help secure the Assembly, AIT and Channels television houses nonetheless ran reports that the secret police invaded the Assembly in Gestapo style.
Accordingly, the DSS through its Counsel in separate letters, gave the media organizations seven days within which to run apologies in their respective news channels five times a day for three days running, or face legal action.
It was gathered that the media organisations alleged in their reports that the DSS stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly to disrupt the business of the House, contrary to facts that the Service was officially and formally invited to carry out its statutory duties.
