Nigeria’s vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has vowed to take legal action against former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Timi Frank and Katch Ononuju for spreading “malicious” falsehood against him.
Frank alleged few days ago that the ongoing travails of Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, is due to corruption and has nothing to do with 2023 politics.
The former APC spokesperson who made the allegation in a statement, Monday, in Abuja, said he got reliable information from his sources in the presidency to the effect that Osinbajo’s travail had nothing to do with 2023 but alleged mismanagement of about N90 billion released by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to prosecute the last general elections in favour of the APC.
“The presidency discovered how Osinbajo allegedly mismanaged N90 billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS),” Frank had said.
“When confronted by the presidency, he confirmed to General Buhari that he indeed allegedly took N90 billion from FIRS but it was used for the 2019 presidential election campaign in strategic states of the South-west.
“Gen Buhari asked for a breakdown of how the money was spent and he said he gave N11 billion to Lagos State APC leader but when the said national leader and one former APC chairman were invited for an explanation, it was confirmed that Osinbajo gave only N5 billion and not N11 billion to Lagos state.
“The cabal is asking to know how come they beat PDP in the South-west with less than 60,000 votes if the money was actually spent in the strategic states of the South-west as allegedly claimed.”
However, in a statement via his twitter handle @ProfOsinbajo on Wednesday, Osinbajo said the allegations were defamatory and false.
“In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals,” Osinbajo said.
“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique have been making the social media rounds anonymously.
“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.
“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood.”
