*Orders retraction of offensive story
21 March 2012, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Vienna based Regional Court for Criminal Matters has slammed Heute newspaper of Vienna over the phantom story last November which alleged that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke purchased a 20 million euro mansion in the Austrian capital.
In a ruling made in pursuant of an application brought before the court by Mrs. Alison-Madueke, the Judge ordered AHVV Verlags GmbH owners of the Heute Newspaper, to do a `public revocation’ by publishing a counterstatement in the newspaper within five working days from the announcement of the verdict.
In line with the ruling the Heute newspaper has since published the retraction cum counter statement whose German to English translation read thus:
“In the edition from November 7, 2011, under the headline ‘Minister from a Country of Hunger,’’ Heute publishes that there had been a great fuss about the Nigerian Petroleum-Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke(50)’’, since she should have bought a mansion in Vienna for almost 20 million Euros and should have praised “the large garden” and the “architectural masterpiece” on the internet.
The retraction further stated that: “This statement of facts is false. The Hon. Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke did not buy any real estate in Austria, in particular no house or villa in Vienna for several millions Euros. Further, the Hon. Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke did not “praise the large garden and the architectural masterpiece’ on the internet as alleged.
