PRESS RELEASE
The attention of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has been drawn to series of false and malicious bulk SMS alerts, newspaper and online publications being dished out to unsuspecting members of the public by the blacklisted publisher of controversial Kaduna-based Desert Herald magazine, Mr. Tukur Mamu in cahoots with some elements in the society.
The alerts and publications are part of evil plot by Mamu and his accomplices to malign the Hon. Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, the Director of Treasury of FCTA, Alhaji Ibrahim Bomoi and other senior officials of the Administration by portraying them as corrupt. The general public, particularly the incoming administration should therefore discountenance such reports and SMS alerts as they are total fabrications by Tukur Mamu who has since been black-listed, disowned and declared a persona non grata by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). The NUJ has entered Mamu’s name as the first in its Black Book for undesirable elements who should be ignored and kept at a safe distance by all reasonable persons and institutions. For this reason, what Mamu is practicing through his SMS alerts and Desert Herald is not journalism but criminality. He is an interloper and quack as far as journalism is concerned.
Having said that, we wish to point out here that initially, the Hon. Minister and the FCT Administration decided to concentrate on more pertinent issues of governance and ignore the bunch of lies since Mamu’s antecedents as a serial blackmailer and extortionist is well known to most discerning Nigerians. The Hon. Minister and the FCTA officials are not used to wasting valuable time refuting empty and unsubstantiated allegations peddled by Mamu and his ilk especially through the social media.
We wish to advise the incoming ruling party, APC, particularly its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed against swallowing coated lies as gospel truth. They should be wary of blackmailers like Tukur Mamu who are scheming to mislead the incoming government through their deliberate false alerts and media reports. The new Administration should not touch notorious characters like Mamu even with a 100-foot pole because of their contaminating effects.
The Hon. Minister and Alhaji Bomoi are very transparent and honest officers who have been discharging their duties creditably contrary to the devilish claims of Mamu. None has been indicted by any panel for corruption or incompetence. Under Senator Bala Mohammed FCTA has posted impressive achievements especially in road construction, railway construction, healthcare delivery, education and building of district infrastructure to mention but a few.
NOSIKE OGBUENYI
Special Adviser, Media
Hon. Minister of FCT.
27th April, 2015.
