HMIC Alh. Lai Mohammed in an interactive session with the media after a meeting in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has presented to the public what he termed “available evidence” of how Senate President Bukola Saraki “lied” that he donated N10m to victims of Offa banks robberies when he did not.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, the minister said he was presenting both the unedited version of a live radio interview as well as the allegedly doctored, re-broadcast version about the donated fund to show “Saraki’s disdain for truth.”
Specifically, the minister said that in the live radio interview on Christmas Day, Saraki said he donated the N10m to the robbery victims in Offa.
However, Mohammed said, it was doctored before it was re-broadcast to remove any reference to the claimed donation of N10m to victims of the armed robbery.
Mohammed said he was releasing the evidence “for Nigerians to see the extent to which some leaders can go to deceive the people and peddle lies just to shore up their dwindling fortunes.”
“In the unedited live version, Dr. Saraki, speaking in Yoruba, said categorically that he donated N10m when he visited Offa to commiserate with the victims of the armed robbery,” the minister said.
“He claimed he was donating N10m, whereas about N7m was stolen from the vaults of the banks that were robbed during the attack.
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“However, the version for re-broadcast did not contain any reference to the Offa robbery.
“Whereas they claimed to have re-broadcast the interview due to popular demand, the truth is that they decided to re-air it without the claim of N10m donation due to the widespread derision that greeted that phantom claim.
“These people have a chronic disdain for the truth.”
Mohammed challenged the Senate President to answer three critical questions or learn to keep his peace:
“The first one is, did he not say, during the live interview, that the money in the vault was N7m and that he dropped N10m when he went to Offa on a condolence visit?
“The second question is, did he really drop any money on that occasion?
“And the third, did he or did he not doctor the original broadcast?”
The minister said while he didn’t intend to exchange words with Saraki on who is truly a grassroots politician in Kwara State, it was important to let him know that six weeks from now, the people of Kwara would answer that question.
“On November 17, 2018, the people of Kwara gave a hint of their determination to sack the rapacious leaders who have dominated their lives when they voted for the All Progressives Congress in the bye-election for the Ekiti/Isin/Irepodun/Oke-Ero federal constituency.
“That crushing defeat so devastated the political warlords who hitherto claimed invincibility, that they started doing what they have never done before, going from ward to ward to campaign!
“Unfortunately, the game is up for them, as they will soon learn, because the people have resolved that O to ge! (enough is enough).
“In the meantime, they are free to continue to revel in self-deceit,” the minister said.
