Former Barcelona and Chelsea striker, Samuel Eto’o has threatened to sue a news website for defamation, after they published a false interview, where he claimed he was set to run in the 2018 Cameroon presidential election.
The website, Jeune Afrique Magazine (Young Africa Magazine) published the story as an April Fool’s joke but it made it to another major news website, France 24.
Eto’o immediately reacted to the interview, accusing the website of making a joke of a delicate political situation in his country.
He also accused the platform of mocking the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon and threatened legal action if the story was not removed.
The striker wrote on his Facebook page: “As a Cameroonian, I am deeply respectful of the institutions of my country and those who embody them.
“I, therefore, believe that the 2018 presidential election in Cameroon and the exercise of the supreme office are very important and cannot be discussed lightly.
“More seriously, the authors of this farce mocked the Anglophone crisis — a situation that causes desolation and mourning in my country.
“I think that the words attributed to my modest self under the guise of a supposed farce are absolutely reductive and denote a total lack of respect.”
In reaction to Eto’s threats, the Jeune Afrique Magazine’s website confirmed that the interview was made up to fool their readers on April 1st, but they are yet to take down the story.
It reads: ‘This interview is directly out of the fruit of our imagination for April 1. As confirmed by the humorous tone of this interview, Samuel Eto’o never claimed that he would run for president in Cameroon.”
Comments