The Federal
Government says the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on
the authors of subversive messages being circulated on the health of
President Muhammadu Buhari.
The
government said this in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by the
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
“The
source/sources of the fabricated messages are already being investigated
and the authors should prepare to face the consequences of their
actions,’’ the minister said.
According to Mohammed, the
President is hale and hearty and there is no iota of truth in the
subversive messages being circulated on his health.
He noted that
there was no truth in the messages on the president’s health and the
purported emergency meetings of state governors in Abuja or anywhere.
The
minister urged Nigerians to disregard the messages being circulated via
text messages and the social media, saying the fabricated messages were
being orchestrated by those who felt threatened by the emerging order.
Mohammed
noted that the naysayers had also resorted to the use of ethnicity and
religion as tools to divide Nigerians, over-heat the polity, and cause
panic among the citizenry.
“While opposition and criticism are
all part of democracy, the crafting and circulation of subversive
materials and scare-mongering are not.
“The emerging trend of
resorting to destabilisation and scare-mongering is not unexpected,
considering this government’s clamp-down on the corrupt elements in the
society.’’
The minister said the scare mongering was because
government had blocked all financial leaks, enthroned probity and
transparency and derailed the gravy train of the looters of public
treasury.
Mohammed said government would neither stifle press
freedom nor abridge the citizens’ right to express themselves freely
through constructive criticism or protests.
He, however, warned
that “the security agencies will neither allow any resort to violence
nor a willful subversion of the state for whatever reason’’.
NAN via thenews