Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, claims it is unjustified to call for his arrest and prosecution for criticizing Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, for inciting the public to violence.
In response to Elder Statesman and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) Leader Chief Edwin Clark’s demand that the minister be detained and charged with spreading “fake news” about Obi, the minister made this statement on Wednesday in London.
Mohammed insisted that his advice to Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, was never founded on untruth and that he stood by it.
“What will be my offence? Is it by chiding Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party who said on live television that if the President-elect Bola Tinubu is sworn-in on May 29 that that would be the end of democracy in Nigeria?
“Is it for chiding him for saying that swearing-in Tinubu in May 29 is like swearing-in the military?
“What is the fake news in that?” the minister queried.
According to him, Baba-Ahmed never backtracked on his live television statement.
Mohammed added that Obi had not publicly rebuked his running mate for the treasonous remarks and that Obi had not done so either.
“The law clearly states that anyone who feels wronged by election results should seek redress in court,”
“It is not to start threatening Nigerians and heating up the polity simply because you lost an election,” he said.
Mohammed emphasized that Tinubu was correctly declared the winner by INEC and that the APC won the presidential election “fair and square.”
He assured Nigerians and the rest of the world that the newly elected president would take office on May 29.
Nigeria is far much better than how Buhari government met it in 2015 – Lai Mohammed
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says Nigeria is better than where it was in 2015 when President Buhari took over as President. Mohammed stated this when he appeared on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) on Monday, February 20.
While speaking during the program, Lai Mohammed said the Buhari-led government has met the expectations of Nigerians. The minister said the attempts to de-market the government were the handwork of die-hard naysayers and a very vocal minority.
He stated that one of the many achievements of the Buhari-led government is the reclaiming of the 27 local governments that were under the control of Boko Haram members in 2015. He recalled that in 2015, Nigeria was the number one importer of rice from Thailand but with the administration’s policies and programs on agriculture, the country is self-sufficient in the staple and food in general.
Mohammed further stated that under the administration’s social intervention programs, 10 million pupils were being fed daily while two million households were benefitting from Conditional Cash Transfers among others.
“We completed the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as well as the second Niger bridge, which was a mirage for more than three decades. Also for more than three decades, Nigerians did not know what it means to travel by train until the Buhari government came to power” he said.
