Both Osinbajo for President Media Council and Tinubu campaign group have claimed to have uncovered yet another fraudulent plan to malign the reputations of their principals, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria and Bola Ahmed Tinubu both Presidential Aspirants on the platform of the APC.
The allegations were contained in separate press statements from the two groups.
According to Osinbajo for President Media Council, the plot has been traced to a cell of smear campaigners, led by a US based Nigerian who was formerly a Students Union President at the University of Lagos. The same individual is currently a lecturer at the University of Ohio in the USA
The plan is to use fake audio of faceless individuals with fictitious names to cast the Vice President, who is a Christian, as a religious fanatic, who discriminated against staff of other faith while he was Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State during the tenure of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu
In the fake video, a woman is seen crying and making frantic allegations that she was discriminated against by the then Attorney-General, because she was not allowed to wear the Muslim head cover for women, otherwise known as the hijab, to work. As observed by someone who was in the same Ministry at the time Osinbajo served as Attorney-General, no such incident ever occurred and this is just a malicious and wicked attempt to sully the sterling qualities of Prof. Osinbajo because of his Presidential aspirations
Indeed, as Attorney-General, Prof Osinbajo’s Secretary, a Muslim, Alhaji Abdul Gafar Bakare had testified before now that the then Lagos AG “did not only encourage me to further my education even at my relatively old age, he personally sponsored my BSc Accounting Program.” He added that the VP also sponsored his He added that the VP also sponsored his foreign travel then.
It would be recalled that similar smear campaigns were unleashed against President Muhammadu Buhari, especially during the 2014-15 Presidential campaigns, when it was alleged that he was virulently anti-Christian. The attempt however met with failure.
Even though a Christian Pastor, Prof Osinbajo has always demonstrated himself to be a tolerant Nigerian who believes in the inter-faith harmony and Freedom of Worship as enshrined in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution as amended. During his career as a university teacher, he taught Moslems and Christians alike in a convivial atmosphere. He also had excellent working and private relationships with Muslim bosses over the decades, including Judge Bola Ajibola, Former Governor Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari. Osinbajo remains a firm believer in Nigeria’s diversity and ardent proponent of Nigerian unity.
A press statement from the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu media group, titled, ‘Tinubu is the target of blasphemous campaign’, the aspirant’s media office said: “The orchestrated set-up of a poster campaign seeking to use a literary application of the Biblical story of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus Christ to rope Asiwaju Tinubu into a storm of blasphemy is the most desperate antics of anti-Tinubu propagandists in recent times.”
It said: “Investigations have revealed that those who created the offensive poster were the same people who created the counter-campaign alleging blasphemy. Their design is used both to provoke anger against the person and aspiration of Asiwaju Tinubu.
“This campaign has failed. This is clearly irresponsible and insensitive political propaganda that seeks to exploit religious sentiments to manipulate public perception against Asiwaju Tinubu, who is ostensibly the most formidable presidential aspirant in this race.”
Olusola Bello
