MINISTER of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed on Wednesday alleged that the rebroadcast Christmas Day interview by Senate President Bukola Saraki was doctored.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the minister promised to make public an unedited interview.
Mohammed said available evidence shows that the live radio interview of the Senate President was doctored before it was re-broadcast to remove any reference to the claimed donation of a N10 million to victims of the armed robbery in Offa, Kwara State.
The minister said he would present to the public, both the unedited version of the live radio interview as well as the doctored, re-broadcast version.
He said this would enable the people to see the extent to which some leaders can go to deceive the people and peddle lies just to shore up their dwindling fortunes.
“In the unedited live version, Dr. Saraki, speaking in Yoruba, said categorically that he donated N10 million when he visited Offa to commiserate with the victims of the armed robbery, when (he said) in actual fact about N7 million was stolen from the vaults of the banks that were robbed during the attack.
“However, the version for re-broadcast did not contain any reference to the Offa robbery. Whereas they claimed to have re-broadcast the interview due to popular demand, the truth is that they decided to re-air it without the claim of N10 million donation due to the widespread derision that greeted that phantom claim. These people have a chronic disdain for the truth,” he said.
Mohammed challenged the Senate President to answer three questions or learn to keep his peace:
The first one is: Did he not say during the live interview that the money in the vault was N7 million and that he dropped N10 million, when he went to Offa on a condolence visit? The second question is: Did he really drop any money on that occasion? And the third: Did he or did he not doctor the original broadcast?”
Mohammed said while he would not want to exchange words with Saraki on who is truly on ground in Kwara, it is important to let him know that six weeks from now, the people of Kwara will answer that question.
“On November 17, 2018, the people of Kwara gave a hint of their determination to sack the rapacious leaders, who have dominated their lives when they voted for the APC in the by-election for the Ekiti/Isin/Irepodun/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency. That crushing defeat so devastated the political warlords, who hitherto claimed invincibility, that they started doing what they have never done before: going from ward to ward to campaign!
“Unfortunately, the game is up for them, as they will soon learn, because the people have resolved that ‘O to ge (enough is enough)’. In the meantime, they are free to continue to revel in self-deceit,” the minister said.
