The Federal Government has debunked alleged plan to frame up former President Olusegun Obasanjo in order to silence him.
The government, according to a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described Obasanjo’s claim as baseless, claiming that he was only worried by his guilt.
Obasanjo had, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Kehinde Akinyemi, claimed that security sources had informed him that the government was planning to frame him up and eventually incarcerate him.
The move, he said, was to make sure that he was silenced.
Obasanjo, however, said he would not be cowed, stressing that his actions were in the interest of Nigerians and the country.
Read also: JUST IN: Obasanjo raises alarm, says Buhari plotting to silence him
But reacting to the alarm raised by Obasanjo, the minister said the government was too busy with clearing the mess caused by the Peoples Democratic Party in its 16 years of administration, than to frame anybody up.
He said it was not in the tradition of the government and Buhar to do that.
His words: “This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an in-law to the cold hands of death.
”The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent. But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe.”
He also described Obasanjo’s action as a calculated attempt to take away the attention of the public from the laudable declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day among other things.
“The impact of this proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed the annulment of an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible, hence they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation,” he said.
The minister said that added to that was “the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction.”
He said faced “with this double tragedy,” even the strongest of men might begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination.
According to him, “they may start crying wolf where there is none.”
