FG threatens authors of ‘subversive messages,’ says Buhari’s rumoured death a ‘silly thing’

The Minister of Information, Culture and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described the rumoured death of President Muhammadu Buhari as a “silly thing.”

Fielding questions yesterday from newsmen after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) ‎meeting in Abuja, he said there were more serious issues to discuss rather than engaging in frivolities.

He decried the development, lamenting that it was only in Nigeria that citizens wished their ‎president dead.

Also in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, Mohammed urged Nigerians to “disregard the subversive messages being circulated via text messaging and the social media.” According to him, “the fabricated messages are being orchestrated by those who feel threatened by the emerging order.”

He added: “There is no iota of truth in the messages being circulated on the health of the President, who is hale and hearty, and the purported emergency meetings of the state governors in Abuja or anywhere.

“The naysayers have also resorted to the use of ethnicity and religion as tools to divide Nigerians, overheat the polity and cause panic among the citizenry, in addition to using fake news and disinformation to distort government activities.

“While opposition and criticism are all part of democracy, the crafting and circulation of subversive materials and scare-mongering are not; hence the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on those who are bent on subverting the state.

“The source/sources of the fabricated messages are already being investigated and the authors should prepare to face the consequences of their actions.

‘’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 plugging of all financial leaks, which has derailed the gravy train of the looters of public treasury and the enthronement of probity and transparency in the polity.