The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has slammed elder statesman and Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, for calling for his arrest.
Recall that Mohammed had accused the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, of treason by inciting the public to violence over his loss in the 2023 election.
Reacting, Clark called for the arrest and prosecution of the minister for falsely accusing the LP flagbearer and spreading fake news about Obi and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Speaking with journalists in London on Wednesday, Mohammed said the call for his arrest and prosecution for advising Obi over inciting the public to violence is unjustifiable.
The minister stated that he stood by his admonition of the former Governor of Anambra State and his running mate, insisting that his advice was never premised on falsehood.
He said Baba-Ahmed had never denied his statement made on live television, adding that Obi had also not publicly called his running mate to order over his treasonable utterances.
He said: “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 that would be the end of democracy in Nigeria?
“Is it for chiding him for saying that swearing in Tinubu on May 29 is like swearing in the military? What is the fake news in that?
“The position of the law is clear that anybody who is aggrieved over election results should go to court.
“It is not to start threatening Nigerians and heating up the polity simply because you lost an election.”
