Presidency To Sue Punch Newspaper Over Fraud Scandal Against Chief Of Staff
The Presidency has established that the Punch newspaper should get ready to meet the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari in court for accusing him of being involved in a gross corruption within the Nigerian government.
In a fresh report published by the media outfit, a man claims to be Mr Kyari’s relative indicted President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff to have engaged in series of fraud including collection of 29 million naira for contract award.
The reports further mentioned that the man was used by the president’s top aide for extensive corrupt acts.
After receiving updates on the report, the Presidency regarded such allegation to be totally fictitious.
Going by a statement signed by a media aide of the president, Garba Shehu on Saturday evening, Punch newspaper may be in for a court case for ‘defamation of character’ as she was warned against the said ‘unfounded’ accusations before an eventual publishing.
The full statement reads:
The Presidency takes strong offence to the improbable and outlandish publication by Punch Newspaper today (Saturday) in a dig at presidential aide Abba Kyari who was alleged to have collected a 29 million naira bribe for the award of a contract.
We wish to state with full authority that the allegation is false and the Chief of Staff did not have any private meetings with the person making those allegations.
What is even more surprising is the decision by the newspaper to run the cooked-up lies despite obvious loopholes in the story, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement’s denial that a major source for the story was a member of their staff.
With a slew of crucial elections ahead, some politicians and their media agents appear to be working together to build pressure on the Buhari administration by wielding non-existent scandals against it.
We equally note that the supply of 15 Hilux vehicles for the Presidency was an unlikely contract to have been awarded, as it did not exist anywhere in the 2016 and 2017 budgets.
Looking through the Appropriation for 2016 and 2017, the request for the supply of 15 Hilux vehicles for the Presidency is not included. How then could COS Abba Kyari have asked for money to award a contract that did not exist anywhere at all?
Once again, we wish to caution against the media’s haste to publish unverified accusations against government officials simply for the sensationalism value, without journalists doing the due diligence required of them by their profession.
The Punch was notified of the various falsehoods contained in the allegations but still went ahead to publish the weak accusations. They should be prepared to face Abba Kyari in court.
