I OWE MY APPOINTMENT AS MINISTER TO BUHARI, LAI MUHAMMED REPLIES SARAKI

He described as laughable the report that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was instrumental to his appointment into Buhari's cabinet.

This followed the claim by Special Adviser (Media) to the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe, that the minister owed his appointment to the Senate president.

The minster, in a statement signed by his media aide, Mr. Segue Adeyemi, described the report as fiction writing.

The minister also challenged Okupe to make evidence of his assertion available.

The statement reads: "The attention of the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture has been drawn to a statement issued by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in which he bold-facedly credited Senate President Bukola Saraki with the appointment of Mohammed as minister.

"The entire statement by Dr. Okupe is nothing but fiction writing, for which he deserves a hall of infamy award (in the fiction writing segment). Not one of the claims he made in his statement is true.

"For the record, Alhaji Lai Mohammed owes his appointment as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to President Muhammadu Buhari and no one else. It is, therefore, laughable that anyone will seek to take credit for that appointment.

"We challenge Dr. Okupe, who concocted the story in question, to make available to Nigerians any evidence he may have to support his assertion that the President sought the permission of Dr. Saraki to appoint Mohammed as minister.

"We understand that Dr. Okupe's cheap attempt at mud-throwing is nothing but a proxy fight, rooted deeply in the politics of Kwara State.

"We are aware that Dr. Okupe's boss is feeling the heat emanating from the 'O To Ge' (enough is enough) movement in Kwara, and that even the strongest of men will become disoriented and disillusioned at losing the support of a people, who once venerated them to high heavens. But that is a self-inflicted wound for which Okupe's boss, an acclaimed slave master, has no one but himself to blame.

"Alhaji Mohammed is very proud to lead the 'O To Ge' movement that is set to finally bring down the Berlin Wall of political hegemony in Kwara State and send Dr. Okupe's boss into political oblivion. That will also free Dr. Okupe himself from merely being his master's voice, so he can fully devote his time to his new-found pastime - fiction writing.ÔÇØ

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