Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, has frowned at what he describes as “the coordinated and relentless media attacks on his person and office from the opposition.”
Musiliu Obanikoro
The Lagos State Government had recently accused of drafting soldiers to a parcel of land on Lagos Island “on the pretext that the land belongs to the federal government.
But a statement signed by the Minister’s Personal Assistant, Mr. Ikenna Ezekwe, Obanikoro noted that at a time of national emergency, when total attention is required to surmount daunting security challenges, a less than patriotic clique within the opposition political circles have collectively chosen to demonise and distract him with spurious reports of phantom incidents.
The statement reads in parts: “The unfounded but imaginatively contrived reports of the use of military personnel to intimidate political opponents, remains as described, an unfounded but deviously conceived attack on a person perceived by his political detractors to be the most formidable threat in the lead up to a round of elections.
“The reference to the Honourable Minister’s unscheduled visit to the Ilubirin site as the act of a meddlesome interloper proves the point that he is a committed stakeholder. There is absolutely no truth in the assertion that work on the site was disrupted by the military detail that accompanied him.
“It must be emphasised that the very serious environmental, statutory, legal, and ethical issues raised by the Honourable Minister have still not been addressed by the relevant parties.”
Ezekwe added that “It has to be noted that the Honourable Minister is not responsible for deploying military personnel either in his detail or in operational circumstances. More importantly he has no mandate to give soldiers or any military personnel orders. The Nigerian military is too professional to become tools in a game of political brinkmanship.
‘’The Honourable Minster wishes to assure all well-meaning and discerning Nigerians, and especially Lagosians, that he (Obanikoro) will never betray the trust that has been reposed in him by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“In the same vein, Senator Obanikoro is mindful of his antecedents as a proud, passionate and patriotic Lagosian.”