The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has described the publication by Leadership Newspaper of 3rd April 2013 purported to be a bromide of a presidential directive on a number of issues as false, mischievous and subversive.
The paper reported that, the Presidency gave an order to deal ruthlessly with the yet to be registered political party, All Progressives Congress, APC as well as the need to closely watch some state governors among others
Addressing the press in Abuja Wednesday, Dr. Okupe said such publication calls for concern among all stakeholders and citizens of Nigeria.
“We wish to state unequivocally that the document published in the Newspaper alleging that the presidency has issued directives to frustrate merger of some political parties, hound opposition leaders and increase price of petroleum products is a forgery and an amateurish one for that matter.
It is shameful that the Leadership Newspaper will descend so low to publish an item which falls short of every standard official communication in form and content and attribute same to the highest office in the land”, he emphasised.
According to the presidential aide, close scrutiny of the bromide purportedly obtained from the presidency reveals that it is a forgery in view of some facts he enumerated as:
“No Letter Head in the presidency has the caption “Presidential Directive” under the Coat of Arms
“Contrary to communication practice in the Presidency, the said “directive” does not contain a recipient whether an individual, group or officials.
“The unsigned document is riddled with serious grammatical errors that could definitely not have emanated from the office of the President of Nigeria.
“The body of the document contains a number of inconsistencies and incongruities which every discerning person should be able to pick out. For example, items 5 and 6 in the 7- paragraph document does not contain any directive and are mere statements made by the dubious author”.
Dr. Okupe wondered why the entire Editorial board of the Leadership Newspaper cannot or deliberately failed to see what he described as “incongruities, libelous distortions and other evidence of falsehood which they have published as a directive from the Presidency”.
While noting that the publication was intended to embarrass the presidency, the opposition political parties will jump at the blackmail and try to incite members of the public based on a false, nonexistent document.
“This shows opposition political leaders as gullible, undiscerning and lacking in capacity for deep thinking. If people with dubious tactics and strategy are the caliber of people angling to govern Nigeria, then as a Nation we must intensify our prayers.
“We have said it before and will say it again that the coming together of any political parties or associations is of no concern to President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of these groups should stop running helter skelter when no one is chasing them neither should they seek for scape goats in the Presidency for their own self inflicted inadequacies”, Dr. Okupe maintained.
He enjoined media practioners not to abuse press freedom but uphold ethical standards in order to avoid irresponsible, unprofessional and subversive practices.