Months after his appearance on Al Jazeera’s Head to Head, Presidential aide Daniel Bwala says the controversy surrounding the interview has moved from public debate to the courtroom.
Bwala says he has sued the broadcaster in the United Kingdom for defamation after it allegedly refused to make public an apology he claimed was issued privately.
“They apologised to me privately. I said they should put it on social media. They said they will not put it on social media because it will affect their credibility”, he said.
According to Bwala, the apology was linked to Al Jazeera’s failure to inform him that the interview would examine his past criticisms of President Bola Tinubu and question his credibility.
He alleged that the original 90-minute interview was edited down to 49 minutes, with sections of his responses removed. Bwala claimed the final broadcast favoured host Mehdi Hasan by excluding portions where he challenged claims made during the programme.
“They cut out the parts where I was fact-checking him and the crowd was clapping for me, and instead kept the parts where he was speaking and people were clapping for him”, he alleged.
He also accused the programme of using archival clips of his previous comments without allowing him adequate opportunity to explain the context. Bwala said he approached the courts after Al Jazeera declined to issue a public apology.
“When they apologised, I said no, put it on social media. They refused. So I instructed my lawyers in England to go to court. The case is currently in court”, he said.
