Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity to the Vice President on Tuesday confirmed that there is a cordial relationship between his principal, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Gov. Nasir el’Rufai of Kaduna State, while describing report of rift between the duo as “a bunch of lies.”
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria , Akande questioned the credibility of the report and described it as “sponsored attempt by political dissidents” whose purpose is to provoke acrimony in the country.
While insisting that the report lack evidence, he stated that it was consistent with similar other baseless reports published online against top officials of the presidency.
Reports filtered the air couple of days back claiming that the governor insulted the VP in the course of a meeting being chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa which caused Vice President Osinbajo to walk out.
As stated by Akande, the relationship between Osinbajo and el’Rufai was cordial in spite of the smear campaign to disparage them, adding that there was no meeting anywhere where the VP engaged in altercation with el’Rufai, neither was there a walk out.
“There is no truth to the story. It is outright falsehood. This is an invention; somebody sat somewhere and invented a lie. It is outright fabrication."
Akande stated that the VP and Kaduna State governor had been friendly even before they got to their current positions.
The SSA advised Nigerians to be wary of false publications by non-professionals.
He said: “I think it is important for those of us in this profession to speak out at this kind of recklessness.
“It is not journalism at all. This is a journalistic scandal.
“I think that those of us that are journalists should be outraged; there should be an outrage to this kind of behavior.
“We should put people who try to ridicule our profession to the test; we should constrain them to provide evidence; if there is no evidence then they should retract the story.
“This is an offence against the cause and practice of the media profession and I know that journalists who are in this profession will be and should be outraged by this.
“We challenge those publishers to come out with proof, any kind of proof at all that what they published is true failing which they should retract the story.”
Akande stated the persons who planted the falsehood would not succeed in their mission having also failed in previous false reports to disparage the integrity of the President, the Vice President and the First Lady.
“One of the things they try to do in this story is to try to bring confusion and acrimony where none exists.”
He advised Nigerians to focus attention on the anti-corruption drive of the administration and its war on terror which were yielding results.
When contacted on phone, the image maker of the Kaduna state governor, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye, stated he would not react to rumour and falsehood.
He stated that the imaginary rift between El’Rufai and Osinbajo was not an issue.