In a post on his Facebook page, Omoleye Sowere the founder of the online news media, Sahara reporters accused Facebook of taking bribes from Senate President Bukola Saraki to shutdown his personal page and promote a fake Sahara Reporters page named Sahara Reporters Rescue and sponsored by the Senate President.

Omoleye lamented being locked out by Facebook for posting numbers of Senators loyal to Bukola Saraki while the fake page was kept online despite also posting numbers of the judge handling Saraki CCT trial. Sowore also alleged that Saraki was funding the Fake page as a reprisal for Sahara Reporters’ publications about the corruption trial faced by Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

See his post below:

Sahara Reporters has been at the forefront of media trial in the corruption case involving the senate president at the CCT. Some opinions have it that Omoloye Sowore and Sahara reporters are being funded heavily by some stalwarts of the APC who are after Saraki for deviating from the APC’s choice of senate presidency to form alliance with the PDP which saw him come through as the senate president.

Bukola Saraki recently claimed in an open letter sent to Dele Momudu and circulated online that he is being politically hunted because he opposed a Muslim/Muslim ticket from the APC in the 2015 election. Indications point to the claims that the Muslim/Muslim ticket was meant to produce a Buhari/Tinubu ticket.

Sahara Reporters was obviously very vocal in the use of its platform to promote the candidate of the APC, president Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 elections. Till date, Sahara Reporters’ publications are still skewed in sympathy with the APC. A position many readers see as “bias” and dangerous for professional journalism.

Saraha Reporters’ one-sided reportage has earned them a reputation many think will lead to the collapse of sound journalism in Nigeria. The founder, Sowore who came to fame via a video circulation online of his defiance to lateness exhibited by former minister of foreign affairs, Mrs Viola Onwuliri during her visit to Nigerians living in the United States during the Jonathan’s administration has somewhat deviated from his earlier activism spotlight to a derailing status of paid blackmailing and image laundering.

Recent Attacks by Sahara Reporters on Saraki are underscored by the fact that the authority to declare him guilty lies with the court at which he is currently undergoing trial. Many have opined that Saraki under the law is presumed innocent until declared guilty by certified court of law whose jurisprudence are insured by provisions of the Nigerian law.

As at the time of filling this report neither Facebook nor Saraki has responded to the allegations made against them by Sowore.