By News Desk
The Osinbajo for President Media Council has revealed that it has discovered a plan to tarnish the reputation of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria and an APC Presidential Aspirant.
The group said that the plot was traced back to a cell of smear campaigners led by a Nigerian living in the United States who was previously the President of the Students Union at the University of Lagos.
“The same individual is currently a lecturer at the University of Ohio in the USA,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
They revealed that the plan is to use sham audio of faceless individuals with fictitious names to portray the Vice President, a Christian, as a religious fanatic who discriminated against the staff of other faiths while he was Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State during former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tenure.
According to the group, in the fake video, a woman is seen crying and making frantic claims that she was discriminated against by the then-Attorney-General because she was not permitted to wear the Muslim head cover for women, also known as the hijab, to work.
It added that someone who was in the same Ministry at the time Osinbajo served as Attorney-General, no such incident ever occurred and this is just a malicious and wicked attempt to sully the sterling qualities of Prof. Osinbajo because of his Presidential aspirations.
“Indeed as Attorney-General, Prof Osinbajo’s Secretary, a Muslim, Alhaji Abdul Gafar Bakare had testified before now that the then Lagos AG ‘did not only encourage me to further my education even at my relatively old age, he personally sponsored my BSc Accounting Program.’
“He added that the VP also sponsored his foreign travel then.
“It would be recalled that similar smear campaigns was unleashed against President Muhammadu Buhari, especially during the 2014-15 Presidential campaigns, when it was alleged that he was virulently anti-Christian. The attempt however met with failure.
“Even though a Christian Pastor, Prof Osinbajo has always demonstrated himself to be a tolerant Nigerian who believes in the inter-faith harmony and Freedom of Worship as enshrined in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution as amended.
“During his career as a university teacher, he taught Moslems and Christians alike in a convivial atmosphere. He also had excellent working and private relationships with Muslim bosses over the decades, including Judge Bola Ajibola, Former Governor Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari. Osinbajo remains a firm believer in Nigeria’s diversity and ardent proponent of Nigerian unity,” it said.
For these reasons, the Media Council said it feels the need to alert the general public to the odious campaign strategy of Osinbajo detractors and urge everyone to ignore same when released to the public.
NAN
