The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said there is
no truth in the messages being circulated on the health of President
Muhammadu Buhari.
Mohammed said the President is hale and hearty.
The minister therefore urged Nigerians to disregard the subversive
messages being circulated via text messaging and the social media about
the President’s health.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Mohammed said the fabricated
messages are being orchestrated by those who feel threatened by the
emerging order.
He said there is 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 state governors in Abuja or anywhere.
He said the naysayers have also resorted to the use of ethnicity and
religion as tools to divide Nigerians, overheat the polity and cause panic
among the citizenry, in addition to using fake news and disinformation to
distort government activities.
The minister said while opposition and criticism are all part of
democracy, the crafting and circulation of subversive materials and
scare-mongering are unacceptable, hence the full wrath of the law will be
brought to bear on those who are bent on subverting the state.
He added: ”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 destabilization 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.”