N90 BILLION ALLEGATION: I WILL WAIVE IMMUNITY TO FIGHT FALSEHOOD, SAYS OSINBAJO
Hear him, “In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals. The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique have been making the social media rounds anonymously,”
“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods. I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood,” he said.
Penpushing reports that, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Frank had accused the Vice President of mismanaging N90 billion allegedly provided by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)for the 2019 election campaign.
The former Deputy National Publicity, however failed to provide any evidence to support his latest claim, while the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) through its Director of information, Wahab Gbadamosi has since debunked the allegation saying the agency’s annual allocation is not up to N90 billion.
“The attention of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has been drawn to publication in some online and daily newspapers by a certain Comrade Timi Frank, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who claimed that the FIRS supported the `APC, through the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with a phantom N90 billion.”
“It is not plausible nor does it make any sense that FIRS will commit its resources to a phantom campaign of N90 billion as suggested by Mr. Timi Frank and FIRS does not fund political associations,” Gbadamosi said in a statement.
Penpushing further reports that, Gbadamosi said the establishment is a creation of statute and its activities are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and financials regulations, hence, “it is not plausible, that its funds could be expended in such a cavalier manner as suggested by Mr. Timi Frank.”
Penpushing also reports that, Osinbajo also fingered Ononuju, a public affairs analyst, in the allegation, but as at the time of filing this report it was not clear if Ononuju made the same claim as Frank or a different one.
