By Ishaya Ibrahim/Lagos
Former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, has promised to make good his threat to sue the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, for linking him with Boko Haram.
National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, (l) and Former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari (r).
A statement Metuh issued on April 14 had alleged that Buhari’s comments, especially those made before the 2011 presidential ballot, were responsible for the terrorist activities in the country as well as the bombing in Abuja on April 14 which claimed at least 72 lives.
In response, Buhari gave an ultimatum of seven days to the PDP to retract the statement or face legal action. The PDP ignored the ultimatum, which expired on April 24.
Buhari’s spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin, reiterated in an exclusive interview with TheNiche that the PDP and Metuh are in for a big legal fight.
“You can be sure that Buhari, being who he is, doesn’t make an empty threat. Remember that he sued Reuben Abati and The Guardian and the court gave him victory because Abati could not substantiate all the nonsense he had written about him on April 22, 2011.”
According to Fashakin, what Abati wrote about Buhari provided fodder for the latest attack on Buhari.
“The mendacious write up that Reuben made then, that is where many of these lies are based. These lies about Buhari is this, Buhari is that, he is a fundamentalist, he encourages violence, and all those things, are based on that.
“This time around, we are not going to allow the lie to travel for too long anymore. We are going to confront it with all the legal means available to us.”
Fashakin said Buhari will go all the way to stop the propaganda against him.
He referred to Buhari’s article on Boko Haram published in the papers on April 23, saying, “Until you read it in the papers you will not understand the quality of the man. But the man has always been there. He is genuine, a true Nigerian, a statesman, an honest leader.
“He has always been there. But negative propaganda is often unleashed on him. You know, a sinner will always be afraid of a saint and will always loathe him.”
Fashakin said people have been reading lies about Buhari because “people spend big money in propagating that lie. A lot of money has been voted and it’s your money, my money used to propagate that lie about him.
“Because he didn’t steal when he was in government, he doesn’t have the funds to negate many of these lies.”
He recalled that it was such propaganda that affected Buhari’s chances in the 2011 presidential election when he contested against President Goodluck Jonathan.
“It is not too late,” Fashakin stressed. “Nigerians can still retrace their steps. Nigerians can still say no to impunity, no to incompetence, no to corruption. If you are looking for corruption, look at the mode of operation of this regime, you will see corruption,” he added.
Attempts to get the reaction of Metuh were unsuccessful. A text message sent to his telephone line could not be delivered.