Following our exclusive interview with Otunba Kamorudeen Lamina, popularly known as ‘Sir K Oluwo,’ the alleged landgrabber in Ikorodu, in our November 2016 edition and a subsequent report on an attempted murder on him published in our January 2017 edition where he accused Mr. Lanre Labinjo, one of the leaders of Onyabo Vigilante Group in Ikorodu, of being a Landgraber and the person behind the assassination attempt on him, there has been a deluge of reactions and petitions from the public to our office demanding that we should balance our story by interviewing Mr. Labinjo to enable him react to the allegations levelled against him by Sir K.
However, on Saturday, January 7, 2017, another petition, this time around from the Lasunwon Royal Family of Ikorodu, that runs into several pages debunked what Sir K said in the interview he granted Oriwu Sun and also detailed several court cases and petitions against him over his landgrabbing activities in Ikorodu and its environs.
With these petitions and demand by the public that we should give Mr. Labinjo a fair hearing couple with our paper’s tradition of balance reportage, we decided to call him on phone that same day we receive the petition from the Lasunwon Royal family, for an interview but he vehemently declined, saying that he did not have interest in granting any interview on what Sir K alleged him of.
Also, we had earlier made several phone calls requesting for an interview appointment immediately the Sir K’s interview and attempted assassination story were published but he told us that he was sick and would not be able to grant the interview.
While we are still waiting for Mr. Labinjo to respond to our interview request, it should be on record that Oriwu Sun, in the spirit of fair hearing and balance reporting, had given both parties equal opportunity to state their case.
It is now left to Mr. Labinjo to leverage on this opportunity and react to these allegations, as demanded by the public.