By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on Wednesday, 12 April, 2023, said the call for his arrest and prosecution for admonishing Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, over inciting the public to violence is unjustifiable.
Mohammed stated this on Wednesday, 12 April, 2023 in London while reacting to the call by Edwin Clark, an Elder Statesman and Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), that he should be arrested and prosecuted for spreading “fake news” about Obi.
The Minister said he stood by his admonition of Obi, a former Anambra State Governor, and his LP running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, saying that his advice was never premised on falsehood.
“What will be my offence? Is it by chiding the 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 would be the end of democracy in Nigeria?
“Is it to chide him for saying that swearing in Tinubu on May 29 is like swearing in the military? What is the fake news in that? Mohammed queried.
“The position of the law is clear that anybody who’s aggrieved over election results should go to court.
“It’s not to start threatening Nigerians and heating up the polity simply because you lost an election,” he added.
The Minister stressed that the APC won the February.25 presidential election “fair and square”, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was correct in declaring Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner.
