Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed is set to sue an online media organization (Pointblanknews.com) which has been publishing false and libelous reports against the Minister, his children and the FCT Administration.
The media organization had in recent weeks alleged that two children of the Minister whose names it gave as Ibrahim and Shamushdeen had stashed away a staggering N35billion in the Unity Bank and UBA Plc as well as an unnamed offshore account.
But the Minister in a strong-worded petition to the Inspector-General of Police is calling for an investigation of the allegations which he dismissed as nothing but criminal fabrications by the authors. For instance, the Minister said he has no son called Ibrahim contrary to the claim of the online publication.
Again, he disclosed that his children had no domestic or offshore account with Unity Bank or UBA contrary to the claims of the online newspaper. He added that even the name of his first son, Shamsudeen was wrongly spelt as ‘Shamushdeen’ in the hatchet stories. Against the backdrop of untruths and contradictions in the stories, he appealed to the Inspector–General to interrogate the publisher.
The Minister urged the Police boss to prevail on the media organization to disclose the full identities of the ‘Ibrahim’ and ‘Shamushdeen’ it referred to in its reports so that the people would be better informed. “They should also be made to provide credible evidence of the bank account numbers to enable you carry out your investigation. I am insisting on these processes to prove my family’s innocence even though I know that the publishers have nothing to buttress their claims because the information upon which their stories were predicated is totally false, malicious and unsubstantiated,” the FCT Minister stressed.
He recalled that appeals to the online media organization to desist from publishing further negative reports against him and his children were rudely ignored, adding that the publisher has not only failed to heed wise counsel by retracting the malicious story but has continued to do more false reports against him and his children.
