Doyin Okupe, NNPC, Postpone ‘Briefing’ of Nigerian Editors

Presidential "attack dog", Doyin Okupe

By SaharaReporters, New York

Efforts by President Goodluck Jonathan's attack dog, Doyin Okupe to recruit editors in Lagos towards thrashing the report of the Nuhu Ribadu committee today fell apart after SaharaReporters exposed the plot.
Yesterday, we reported that the presidency, through the Office of the Special Assistant to President Jonathan on Public Affairs, was collaborating with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to host selected journalists at lunch this afternoon in order to brief them.
Following that story, Okupe's people today sent out a text message announcing cancellation of the event and announcing that a “private” new date is in the offing.
The text message sent to the journalists involved reads as follows: "SaharaReporters has carried that d meeting is holding. Dr. Okupe says we shd cancel. A new private date will be communicated. He sends his apologies. Thanks"
The pre-empted meeting was scheduled to hold at the upscale Lagoon Restaurant in Victoria Island Lagos at 1PM Nigerian time.  The text message is code language that a secret meeting, which is often held in the middle of the night, is forthcoming.  Such selected journalists often walk away with lucrative packages, including parcels of land in Abuja.
At today’s event, Mr. Okupe had planned to distribute three different copies of the Ribadu committee report to the journalists as a way of discrediting it.
Mr. Jonathan’s government has a reputation for promising large-scale response to corruption, but it routinely suppresses reports which repeatedly and predictably indict members of the government, their party, and friends.