The Nation reports that 'for the second time in one week, the social media was yesterday awash with rumours on the President’s state of health, creating the impression of an orchestration of the issue.
Last week, a photograph of the President watching television in a sitting room in London was made available by the Presidency, after it denied that the President had passed on.
On Tuesday, factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Ahmed Makarfi accused some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders, who, he said, are interested in contesting certain positions in 2019, of being behind the rumour.
But Minister of Information Lai Mohammed yesterday urged Nigerians to disregard such messages being circulated via text messaging and the social media on the President’s health which he said were being orchestrated by those who felt threatened by the emerging order. He urged Nigerians “not to panic”.
He said there was “no iota of truth in the messages being circulated on the health of the President, who is hale and hearty, and the purported emergency meetings of the governors in Abuja or anywhere.”
He said the naysayers had also “resorted to the use of ethnicity and religion as tools to divide Nigerians, overheat the polity and cause panic among the citizenry.”
He said in addition, those behind the messages were “using fake news and disinformation to distort government activities.”
Mohammed said in a statement: “While opposition and criticism are all part of democracy, the crafting and circulation of subversive materials and scare-mongering are not, hence the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on those who are bent on subverting the state.
‘’The source/sources of the fabricated messages are already being investigated and the authors should prepare to face the consequences of their actions.
‘’The emerging trend of resorting to destabilisation and scare-mongering is not unexpected, considering this government’s clampdown on the corrupt elements in the society, the plugging of all financial leaks which has derailed the gravy train of the looters of public treasury and the enthronement of probity and transparency in the polity.
‘’While we will neither stifle press freedom nor abridge the citizens’ right to express themselves freely, whether through criticism or protests, the security agencies will neither allow any resort to violence nor a willful subversion of the state for whatever reason.”
The minister also told reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting the the rumour on the President’s health is a “silly thing”.
He said there were more pertinent issues to discuss in the country than indulging in irrelevances.
He said: “I don’t want to lend my voice to a very silly thing. I will not join this debate. I think there are more serious issues of state to discuss than this issue.
“It’s only in this part of the world that you wake up in the morning and you say the president of the country is dead. I will not join that kind of debate at all.”
President Buhari left Nigeria for the United Kingdom last Thursday on vacation. He is also billed to undergo medical check-up while on the trip.
Post a Comment