VICE-PRESIDENT Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, wrote the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Mohammed, calling for an investigation into the allegation that he received the sum of N4billion from the funds allegedly stolen by the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu.
The letter was written after a statement, signed by the VP’s spokseperson, Laolu Akande, strongly denied the allegation on Wednesday evening.
An online platform, PointBlank News, published by Jackson Ude, a former Director of Strategy and Communications under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, had published a story, on Wednesday, saying that Magu embezzled over N39 billion and gave Osinbajo N4 billion for soft landing.
In the letter to the IGP, written through his lawyers, Taiwo Osipitan, the VP noted that the claim by the US-based blogger was untrue and defamatory.
“On the 8th of July 2020, Mr Ude wrote and published on his website www.pointblanknews.com materials/stories which are criminally defamatory of our client. We have the instructions of our client that the said publications are injuriously false in every respect,” the lawyer said in the letter.
He also copied the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The allegation was repeated by Ude on twitter.
“HushBajo. N4billion. The Ghana investment. Okechukwu Enelamah the erand boy. The secretly recorded night vigil prayers at the Villa Chapel. The letter of resignation written for Buhari in Tunis by Tinubu/Osinbajo while Ba was sick. The scheming to take over. Etc. This na pay back https://t.co/vgIHZlQR6c,” he had tweeted.
Osinbajo’s lawyer said the tweet, which was shared on several social media platforms, portrayed the VP as a “dishonest and disloyal public officer and consequently unfit for the position of the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he is occupying.”
He therefore asked IGP to investigate the allegations, adding that if the purveyor was found guilty, the police should initiate criminal proceedings against Ude and his platform to restrain them from future ‘false publications’.
