Nigeria has threatened CNN with sanctions for airing allegations that airport gateways and toll gates are being set up to make billions of dollars for individuals and government entities at the expense of travelers.
Officials have yet to provide evidence that the report is inaccurate, but did cite the recent case of a Nigerian lawmaker who had disappeared from a diplomatic passport in order to evade a bail order in another case.
The News agency of Nigeria in 2015 investigated the operations of the Lekki Port Integrated Development Authority, a venture formed to manage Lekki toll road by the Nigerian government and foreign companies, which contributed to the local public’s displeasure by extracting tolls. Nigeria’s Ministry of Transport had given CNN the green light to investigate.
In October, CNN’s Victoria Kim reported that the development authority collected between 3 billion and 7 billion Nigerian naira, equal to around $18 million, in toll fees from Nigerians in the last five years — and that most Nigerians did not have a say in its construction and other operating decisions.
The newspaper heiress and daughter of a late president was said to have paid one toll fee of 38 million naira.
In its release, the Nigerian government said CNN chose a trial figure of 2 billion naira because it wanted to “put the shoddy work of a local contractor, who seems to be a saint in business, in perspective.”
CNN said that it waited for the final report from Nigeria before reporting its findings.
“CNN previously reported that government-owned agencies charged tolls on Lekki [Point of Entry], Lagos, the country’s busiest international port,” the news agency said in a report on its website. “The Nigerian government found the story and letter false and mischievous, but before CNN’s report, the claim had been denied by many government officials.”
CNN obtained documents showing that international firms paid more than 100 million naira to manage this international port.
“The new CNN report has sparked a massive internal search of past archives,” the newspaper said. “Top government officials have told CNN that nobody has ever been forced to pay tolls and that the charges appear valid in light of the enormous total profits made by the agencies. They say the concessionaire’s original clients — shipping firms and supertankers — have been eager to pay the tolls.”
CNN said that it would not produce a documentary on the issue before its attempt to “find out” if there was truth to the earlier story.
The Nigeria’s Ministry of Information told CNN that it plans to force the TV network to pay damages for damages done to Nigeria.
The government is also charging that CNN’s stories led to a boycott of the country’s embassy in London by business and entertainment groups over allegations that its negotiators used foreign contact list software to retrieve personal information from their files. The Nigerian Embassy said that CNN never sought to verify that the information was false.
In 2013, HBO’s “The Africa Report” ran a documentary about the airport gateways, blaming those companies for imposing an “illegal scheme” to make about 500 billion naira, equal to the country’s GDP at the time.
“This scheme will be driven by individuals, including state actors, who make use of the opportunities that the gateways give them,” the documentary said.
The Nigerian government says that the companies and the high court have “offered clarification” to CNN about the issue, but has not found any such thing.
ABC’s Africa editor Inga Marie Osejumu also criticized the investigation, saying in a tweet that CNN should “make sure it has a fact based story before launching into a war of words with Nigerian govt over what really transpired at Lekki.”