From the title of this fabrication, it is obvious that this is a hatchet job. Why “FCT Minister Wike Revoked 30 Hectares Of Land Owned By Top Military Officers, Reallocated Same To Associates Including INEC Chair Amupitan”? This is a deliberately concocted news to malign the personality and character of the newly-appointed INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan SAN.
The story carried on November 12, 2025 on social media network went thus: “The source who has been directly engaged in the matter, said the revocation and redistribution were carried out “in total disregard of due process, official recommendations, and existing approvals.”
What I have observed about Sahara Reporters is its penchant for yellow journalism. That medium only goes out to the public with news item targeted at certain public functionaries, with unsubstantiated, spurious allegations. Well, the Sahara Reporters outfit wherever it exists risks libel and defamation case. What are the fresh details that emerged that were not revealed until after the altercation between the FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike and the Naval Lieutenant, AM Yerima?
Instead of tackling the issue of civil-military assault involved, from what other mediums have brought to light, Sahara Reporters threw ethics of the profession to the dogs and singled out the Chairman of INEC for a mission. What has Prof. Amupitan bought from Omoyale Sowore’s market? He is acting contrary to his name: or is it part of the antics to get noticed by the Learned Silk?
The write-up claimed to have relied on a ‘source’, which was involved in the case of the disputed 30-hectare land was initially allocated to serving and retireqd (sic) military personnel but was later revoked by the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. “Speaking exclusively to SaharaReporters, a legal practitioner involved in the case…”. It continued, “The lawyer revealed that the same was reallocated to Wike’s political associates, including a top ally alleged to be the current Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Sam Amupitan”.
From the foregoing, with the obvious errors in words and names, it is clear and laughable that Sahara Reporters had now ‘Fresh details’ but was just out for a hatchet job against the respected legal luminary. His name is Joash and not Sam. From the avalanche of criticism that has been unleashed since the nomination of Prof. Amupitan, one can only deduce that enemies of truth and integrity are on the loose. They have emerged to defame a scholar and legal mind who had been leading a quiet but fulfilled life in the academia and the precincts of the law courts until this national assignment beckoned him to come and contribute his quota to the advancement of our electoral system.
Another jaundiced report allegedly painting our own Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan SAN as being against adherents of Islam in Nigeria surfaced during the course of last week, purporting to be a misnomer whereas it was a honest assessment of the undercurrent genocide bedeviling our dear nation. As a patriot and stakeholder in the Nigerian project, someone sworn to the defense of our judicial and democratic system, Amupitan came out to sound a note of caution in the referenced correspondence to the effect of calling global and necessary attention to the untoward situation. Why turn the truth on its head?
This writer is certain that if Prof. Amupitan SAN had not been nominated and confirmed by the National Assembly as the substantive Chairman of INEC, but had remained in his little but enviable corner of being a defender of the defenseless, all this shenanigans will not be a free show. That raises a fundamental question: should round pegs meant for round holes remain backstage rather than the limelight in this country? Whence cometh our growth and development then? His pedigree shows this is a man worth his salt. He observed an anomaly being perpetrated and he wrote as a civilized citizen with a sense of duty to call attention to how it should be tackled but he is today being demonized. Irrespective of where the palm tree is planted, it will always flourish and never lack nourishment.
The loser will continue to be Nigeria, if this is allowed to subsist. Sahara Reporters’ s claims by its source, “I am personally involved as a lawyer in this matter and several other cases of revocation and reallocation of land to private persons by Wike,” the source said, can only corroborate this was a either a pre-meditated or spontaneous plan to drag the INEC Chairman into a matter that does not concern him. Wouldn’t it have been better if the so-called lawyer, who hopefully knows the implications of his goaded actions, to have left Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan SAN out of his narrative and apparent personal issue with the FCT Minister? As the report goes, “The lawyer accused Wike of telling aggrieved landowners to “go to court” whenever confronted, despite ignoring existing court processes and administrative reviews.”
This unidentified, faceless ‘source’ so much relied on by Sahara Reporters to impinge the person and reputation of Prof. Amupitan SAN only after the viral video of the altercation between Wike and Officer Yerima, should be prepared to defend himself in court. This writer only hopes that Omoyele Sowore would be there to defend him, since and if he is also purportedly a recent graduate of Law?
(AK OMERANMUKA’ANDU is the pseudonym of ‘Diran Ademiju-Bepo, Professor of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Jos, a media practitioner and currently a social analyst).
