The Presidency and spokesperson of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), Akin Osuntokun, on Thursday traded words over the latter’s allegations that a bomb blast occurred during the Eid-el Kabir celebration in Maiduguri, Borno State on Tuesday, killing 88 people.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement said, telling lies of that kind betrays a mind taken over by ill wishes for his country.
The statement reads: “On Tuesday, August 21, 2018, Akin Osuntokun, a chieftain of the stillborn Coalition for Nigeria Movement, appeared on Politics Today programme of Channels Television, and made the false claim that a bomb blast had gone off earlier in the day, killing about 88 people in Maiduguri, Borno State.
“Osuntokun, a newspaper columnist and public affairs commentator, has never hidden his antipathy towards the Muhammadu Buhari administration, but to go on national television and tell lies of the most heinous kind betrays a mind taken completely over by ill wishes against his own country.
“Apparently, enemies of peace and progress had expected a return to the infamous past, thus Osuntokun appeared on television with his bag of lies.
“Osuntokun and his ilk should realise that this is the only country we have, and we can’t swallow poison and expect it to kill the next person. What we sow is what we reap.”
Responding, Osuntokun, a former managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria, insisted that there was a terrorist attack around the Sallah holiday.
Citing Reuter’s news agency and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Osuntokun noted that on August 20, Boko Haram killed scores of persons in Mailari, Borno State.
He, however, conceded that the casualty figure of 80 which he spoke of on a television interview was a mistake.
“I find it insulting that I would be referred to as an enemy of the country because I said there was a terrorist attack in Borno State, which was reported on the eve of the Sallah celebrations by Reuters and several other news agencies
“I admit that I mixed up the figure and this is because these attacks occur so frequently that it is hard to always remember the figures. But to say that there was no attack is nothing but a lie from the Presidency, Osuntokun said.
He described Adesina and President Buhari as the liars and enemies of the state.
“It is regrettable that Adesina, using the instrumentality of the Presidency, can call me the enemy of the country. I wonder whether he is not an enemy of Nigerians by threatening them to give up their land to herdsmen or risk being killed,” Osuntokun added.
