NATIONAL: Again, presidency alerts on smear campaign plot against Buhari

THE Presidency has alerted the public to what it described as “planned orchestrated smear campaign” against President Buhari through some online newspapers and blogs.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, raised the alarm in a statement issued today, titled, “Unrelenting plot to wage smear campaign against President Buhari.”

This is the second time within recent time that the presidency will be making this claim.

Toward the end of last year, a similar allegation was made against unknown people planning to use some unnamed online newspapers and blogs to besmirch the president’s image as a titular president not in charge of the affairs of the country.

The statement then claimed that an online platform had been procured to launch a campaign of calumny against Buhari with heavy monetary inducement while an offshore medium had been hired for the assignment.

Still toeing the line of last year’s statement, Adesina claimed in the latest statement that the planned campaign of calumny against the President is scheduled to be launched anytime soon through editorials and “purported special investigative stories.”

The presidential spokesman alleged that the plan has been designed to further exacerbate tension in the land, by portraying the president as pandering to ethnic and other primordial tendencies, contrary to his pledge to “belong to all Nigerians.”

The statement read, “Impeccable security findings indicate that those behind the plot have procured online blogs and newspapers, which are to launch coordinated publications, alleging subjugation and suppression of a particular religion and ethnic groups.

“A specific medium has so far contacted some opinion leaders, especially those very critical of President Buhari.

“Part of the planned publication is to make unwary readers believe that the President has continually used the powers of his office to shield and protect an ethnic group against crimes of murder, kidnappings, rape and banditry in the southern, middle belt and some northern states.

“The publication will also refer Nigerians to a 58-page document, which chronicles purported atrocities of the ethnic group in the South since 2017, all of which it claims the Presidency has turned blind eyes to.

“Again, the hatchet job will allege that the President has continued to place members of his ethnic nationality in sensitive positions, so as to confer undue advantage on them. This allegation is by no means supported with reasonable facts and figures.”

The statement reminded Nigerians that Buhari had on Thursday while meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), led by Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, restated his even-handedness on the issues of ethnicity and religion.

It added, “The Federal Government under my leadership does not, and will not, allow religious prejudice or partisanship to influence any of its decisions and policies.

“It is my solemn decision to be fair and just to all segments of society.”

The statement, however, maintained that those who were bent on stoking ethnic and religious unrest in the country had remained deaf to reason, and impervious to reality.

“They are hell-bent on distorting reality, and Nigerians are urged to be wary of them. It is all about the quest for power, and filthy lucre,’’ he added.