The Federal Government has refuted the allegation by opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, that the All Progressives Congress, APC government has hatched plans to exterminate the opposition.
The PDP national secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, had in a statement on Tuesday in reaction to the arrest of the party’s national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, said there was credible “intelligence” that the arrest “is part of a larger script by the government to ensure that PDP wings are finally clipped in their mission to install a dictatorial one-party state in the country”.
But the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, absolved the President Muhammadu Buhari administration of blame in Metuh’s predicament.
He said: “I think the first point to make is that this government is not micro-managing any of the anti-graft agencies. I know for a fact that they don’t contact the President or anybody before they do their job. I think the media also has to do more than they are doing right now, they should investigate these allegations and also make their independent judgment about it”.
The Minister continued: “Honestly, if the EFCC or ICPC says that they are able to trace certain amount of money to my account, I don’t want you to believe it, I want you to also ask for proof, do your investigation. I can assure you that this government, no functionary in government micromanages or directs the EFCC or ICPC on who to arrest and who not to arrest”.
