The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the call for his arrest and prosecution for admonishing Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, over inciting the public to violence is unjustifiable.
The minister stated this on Wednesday in London while reacting to the call by Elder Statesman and Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, that he should be arrested and prosecuted for spreading “fake news” about Obi.
Mohammed said he stood by his admonition of Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, insisting that his advice was never premised on falsehood.
“What will be my offense?” Is it by the chided Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party who said on live television that if President-elect Bola Tinubu is sworn in on May 29, that would be the end of democracy in Nigeria?
“Is it for chastising him for saying that swearing in Tinubu on May 29 is like swearing in the military?”
“What is the fake news in that?” the minister queried.
He said Baba Ahmed had never denied his statement made on live television.
Mohammed also said that Obi had not publicly called his running mate to order over the treasonable utterances.
“The position of the law is clear: anybody who is aggrieved over election results should go to court.”
“It is not to start threatening Nigerians and heating up the polity simply because you lost an election,” he said.
Mohammed stressed that the APC won the presidential election “fair and square” and INEC was right in declaring Tinubu the winner.
He reassured Nigerians and the international community that the president-elect would be sworn in on May 29.
NAN
