By Akinwale Kasali
Ijaw National Leader and Convener of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Edwin Clark, has slammed the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed for spreading fake news against Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP. For doing that, Clark has called for the prosecution of the Minister.
The Elder Statesman said that Mohammed has continually used his office to commit an illegitimate act following his statement at Washington DC, the United States of America Capital during an engagement with international media organizations where he warned Obi and his Vice President, Datti Baba-Ahmed against inciting violence over the outcome of the election.
It would be recalled that Baba-Ahmed had said in an interview with Channels Television that the President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, did not meet the constitutional requirements to become Nigeria’s president, and had failed to fulfill the requirements stipulated for election to the office of the president and asked the chief justice of Nigeria, CJN, not to swear him in as president.
This was said to a treasonable statement, in which the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government warned Baba-Ahmed and Obi to refrain from making unguarded statements.
Though, Baba-Ahmed’s statement received backlash from many Nigerians including Nobel Laureate Winner, Wole Soyinka.
But Clark has a contrary opinion to this, as he called on the Attorney General of the Federation to “undertake thorough investigation of the activities” of Mohammed and charge him to court for constituting himself as “mastermind and disseminator of fake news”.
Clark added that the discovery of a plot of an interim government aimed at overthrowing the federal government was malicious and untrue.
“Like I said, Lai Mohammed did not base his information on any credible intelligence report from the state agencies, but on propaganda and falsity. Therefore, I am of the opinion that he should be charged for spreading unhealthy information and fake news against an innocent Nigerian who is very prominent and has proven his worth in the country. Lai Mohammed used the exalted position of the office of the nation’s ministry of information to commit this perfidy,” he said.
“As Lai Mohammed knows well, most Nigerians today are very keen observers of what is going on in the country. We have also continued to watch and closely watch actions, inactions, and utterances by the key political actors and their close associates. It is therefore totally unacceptable that a minister in charge of a sensitive government department as dissemination of information should constitute himself to become the purveyor of false information, innuendos, and even fake news.
“It is clear therefore that the minister of information has constituted himself to become the mastermind and disseminator of fake news. This leaves us with no option than to call on the attorney general of the nation to undertake thorough investigation of the activities of the minister and charge him to court.
“It is criminal, unpatriotic, and wicked for anyone to draw the name of Peter Obi who fully participated in thev 2023 presidential election and who has gone to court to express his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the presidential election and his popularity which has spread to all part of the country as a wildfire has no doubt caused a great embarrassment to the federal government.
“What is being alleged as a discovery of a plot to overthrow the federal government by DSS is malicious and untrue.”
