Atiku alerts, Tinubu plotting media gag to shield himself from public scrutiny
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu is fighting back his certificate scandal with distortions and falsehoods and is now scheming to gag the media over the matter as well as over the release later this month of documents on him by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Atiku Abubakar has alerted Nigerians.
The FBI plans to release 25,000 documents on the President at 500 documents every month for 50 months until 2017.
The US State Department said it will equally start turning over 450 pages from its archive on Tinubu every six weeks, also beginning this month.
Besides, the US Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) all have pledged to release thousands of pages of records on him in compliance with the law.
The documents are to be released sequel to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request backed by a US court subpoena.
All of this is apart from the deposition in the Chicago papers exposing Tinubu’s forgery of CSU certificate and forged documents with which he entered Southwest College Chicago from where he got the transcript to gain admission into CSU.
The threat by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on October 6 to sanction Arise News is only the tip of the iceberg, Atiku warned in a statement issued at the weekend through his Media Aide Phrank Shaibu.
Shaibu said the NBC has been watching as other media outlets like Television Continental (TVC) have constantly attacked Atiku while refusing to air opposition views.
TVC is owned by Tinubu along with The Nation newspaper.
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Tinubu frustrated with certificate scandal, Atiku says
The Tinubu administration has become frustrated with scandal spewed by the Chicago papers and is planning a massive offensive in the coming days, Shaibu alerted, per Daily Post.
“Back in February,” he added, “the NBC tried to show a bit of fairness and fined TVC for unprofessional broadcasts, including the airing of the Joint Media Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council press briefing, where Festus Keyamo said Obasanjo and Atiku ran a criminal enterprise and an empire of fraud in Abuja.
“However, since Tinubu became President on May 29, the NBC has become more partisan than ever. The NBC boss, Balarabe Ilelah, is obviously seeking to retain his appointment and is now dancing to the tune of the APC and their master at the Presidential Villa.
“The NBC has now been co-opted into a grand plot to gag the media over Tinubu’s certificate scandal. Having lost the battle in the court of public opinion, they are now trying to use the powers of the state to browbeat the media into silence.
“This is indeed shameful for a man who claimed to be a hero of the June 12 struggle.”
Shaibu reiterated this is not the time for the Nigerian media to show any weakness, stressing the trove of documents the FBI is set to release from this month would expose details of the investigation on Tinubu.
Dissemination of this information must not be left to social media alone, he pressed, and urged traditional media to rise up to its role as the watchdog of society as enshrined in Section 22 of the Constitution.