Follow Us on Google
- Urges Buhari to call nation’s spokesman to order
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The elder statesman the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Edwin Clark, called for the arrest and prosecution of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for spreading what he called fake news against the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.
Clark, who is also Former Federal Commissioner for Information and Leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), said as Minister of Information for eight years now, rather than unite the country, Mohammed has caused more ”divisions in the country”.
He described the minister’s job as the image maker of government for the past eight years as disappointing, recalling that he held a similar post 48 years ago when he was appointed by former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon as Federal Commissioner for Information in 1975.
Recall the Minister had on April 5th in far away Washington DC, said both Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed risk being prosecuted for treason over some of their utterances on the February 25 presidential election.
Baba-Ahmed had in a recent interview with a television station asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in the President-Elect on May 29, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari will be ending democracy should he preside over the inauguration.
According to Clark, Mohammed’s attempt to damage Obi’s reputation and rising profile were an exercise in futility.
He said the minister did not base his accusations on any report or information given by any state agency, but on mere propaganda targeted at destroying the reputation of an innocent citizen.
The elder statesman condemned the minister’s treating the media with levity, saying under his watch, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is no longer independent.
He wondered why the Minister of Information will take more than usual interest in not only scandalising and lying against Peter Obi but using his privileged position to circulate the same to the country and the entire world.
Clark called on President to call the nation’s spokesmen to order, noting that the “nation is already too tensed; those whose responsibility it is to douse the tension should not be the ones stoking the embers of a fire that will flame up the country.”
