Call For My Arrest, Prosecution Baseless – Lai Mohammed
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has reacted to calls for his arrest for allegedly spreading fake news against Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Obi had refuted statements credited to Mohammed that he incited the public to violence.
The minister spoke on Wednesday in London while reacting to the call by Elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, 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 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.
He said Baba-Ahmed had never denied his statement made on the live television
Mohammed also said that Obi had also not publicly called his running mate to order over the treasonable utterances.
“The position of the law is clear that 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.
