The State Security Service (SSS), also known as the Department of State Services (DSS), has threatened criminal and civil legal action against Peoples Gazette over a report alleging that the agency’s Director-General, Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, was involved in the alleged abduction and forced resignation of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari.
In a letter dated 5 August and signed by Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), the counsel to the SSS and its director-general, the newspaper was accused of publishing a “libelous and unfounded” article that portrayed the agency as “an irresponsible and reckless organisation” and its head as a “hatchet man and a lackey” used to carry out political intimidation.
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The contentious report, published on 2 August, claimed that Mr. Ojulari was forcibly taken and pressured into resigning by Mr. Ajayi and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, following an alleged directive from a woman identified as Olatimbo Ayinde, described in the report as President Bola Tinubu’s mistress.
The article featured photographs of the SSS director-general, the EFCC chairman, and Ms. Ayinde, which the agency’s lawyer said further demonstrated the intent to defame and malign the image and integrity of both the institution and its leadership.
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“Our clients have been grievously maligned and injured in their integrity and character by your baseless and unfounded publication,” the letter reads.
“Since your libelous publication, our clients have been inundated with calls by Nigerians both within and outside the country with so many of them expressing outrage and disappointment in our clients.”
The SSS is demanding that Peoples Gazette immediately retract the story from all its online platforms and issue an unreserved apology using the same platforms through which the original article was published.
The letter warned that failure to comply with the demands within 48 hours would result in both civil and criminal proceedings, including actions under the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015.
“As your conduct is actionable per se, just as it is a criminal offence under the provisions of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act,” the lawyer wrote, adding that the agency would proceed with legal action “without further reference” to the publication.
Peoples Gazette has yet to issue a public response to the SSS’s demands at the time of this report.
The EFCC and its chairperson had also on Wednesday demanded retraction of the controversial story from Peoples Gazette.
BELOW IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER BY THE SSS TO PEOPLES GAZETTE
5th August, 2025.
The Editor,
The Peoples Gazettte Ltd.,
Plot 1095, Umar Shuaibu Avenue, Utako, Abuja, FCT.
Dear sir,
LIBELOUS PUBLICATION AGAINST THE STATE SECURITY SERVICE (S.S.S.) A.K.A DSS AND ITS DIRECTOR GENERAL, MR. ADEOLA OLUWATOSIN AJAYI, CONCERNING THE ALLEGED ABDUCTION AND FORCED RESIGNATION OF MR. BAYO OJULARI. DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE RETRACTION AND APOLOGY.
We are counsel to the State Security Service (also known as the Department of State Security Service, D.S.S.) and its Director-General, Mr. Adeola Oluwastosin Ajayi, on whose behalf and instructions we write this letter. Our clients have briefed us concerning your online publication of 2nd of August, 2025, titled: “EFCC, SSS, abduct NNPC BOSS Bayo Ojulari, force him to sign resignation letter after directive from Bola Tinubu’s paramour Olatimbo Ayinde”.
In the publication, which went viral, the photograph of our client, the Director- General of the State Security Service; Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, was conspicuously displayed alongside the photographs of one Olatimbo Ajayi (F), and Mr. Ola Olukoyede, the EFCC Chairman.
In the said publication, you caused to be published the following words, against our clients: “In a development reminiscent of Nigeria’s dark military days, top officials of two federal law enforcement and security bodies abducted the head of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Peoples Gazette can report, forcing him to resign at a secret rendezvous in Abuja. Bayo Ojulari was seized on Friday and pressured to sign a resignation letter by Ola Olukoyede, chairman of anti-graft EFCC, and Adeola Ajayi, director- general of the State Security Service”.
The above publication is totally false, unfounded, libelous, and portrayed the State Security Service as an irresponsible and reckless organization, while it also portrayed its Director-General, Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi as a hatchet man and a lackey, used by one Olatinbo Ajayi, the alleged ‘paramour’ of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to harass, intimidate and blackmail Mr. Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, whom you claimed was abducted and forced to resign from his position by our client and Mr. Ola Olukoyede, the EFCC Chairman. To further demonstrate your intention to libel our clients, apart from the fact that your publication is entirely false, the quoted source (National security and law sources) of the information is also questionable and contrived.
In the entire gamut of your publication under reference, you failed to ensure balancing in your report by seeking any form of verification or confirmation of the alleged abduction and resignation of Mr. Bayo Ojulari under duress. Your conduct underscores the fact that, you had deliberately set out to libel and malign the image and integrity of our clients, the SSS and its Director-General.
Our clients have been grievously maligned and injured in their integrity and character by your baseless and unfounded publication. Since your libelous publication, our clients have been inundated with calls by Nigerians both within and outside the country with so many of them expressing outrage and disappointment in our clients. Therefore, having regard to the injury caused to our clients by your false publication, our clients have instructed us to demand the following from you:
The immediate retraction of your libelous publication from all your online platforms and any other medium through which the said libelous publication had been published. 2. The retraction shall be accompanied by an unreserved apology on all your online platforms, and any other medium through which the libelous publication was published. Please note that, should you fail to comply with the above demands within a period of Forty Eight (48) hours from the delivery of this letter to you, we shall, on behalf of our clients, seek redress against you and your Newspaper outfit through civil and criminal actions, as your conduct is actionable per se, just as it is a criminal offence under the provisions of the Nigeria’s Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015, [as amended]. Be informed that, these legal actions shall be taken against you and your outfit without further reference to you.
Yours faithfully,
Chief Ayodeji Adedipe, SAN.
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