Salamatu Abubakar
Recently, I was surfing the net and stumbled on a malicious publication by Pointblanknews posted on its site titled: “FCT Minister’s Children Stash N35bn in Nigeria, Foreign Banks’’. Initially, I was tempted to wave it off as one of those publications by desperate elements seeking cheap popularity; but I knew if nothing is done to set the records straight, gullible Nigerians would swallow the report as the gospel truth.
A lie told repeatedly, if not corrected, is likely to assume the toga of truth. It is on this basis that I have decided to set the records straight by responding to the litany of fallacies contained in that unfortunate report.
The online site, published by Jackson Ude from Abia State, in the report alleged that two children of the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, namely, ‘Shamushdeen’ and Ibrahim, had stashed away billions of naira in Unity Bank and UBA Plc. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The truth is that no son of the FCT minister has account with Unity Bank or UBA and none of his sons is called Ibrahim.
It was easy to discern that there is no iota of truth in the report, solely packaged with the criminal intent of embarrassing the minister. Judging from its notorious antecedents, Pointblanknews is a social media that has generally been acknowledged to be completely lacking in moral scruples, which has been on rampage blackmailing innocent public officers and other citizens for less than altruistic reasons. Some public officials that have been unfortunate to taste the bitter pill of its poisonous publications are Governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji, and Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The online site was being economical with the truth when it said that the so-called sons of the minister have been “harassing and obtaining contracts from directors
in the FCT using fronts and phony companies.’’ And the report also scandalously stood honesty on its head when it declared that ‘‘Shamushdeen’ and Ibrahim, the first and second sons of the minister, barely 28 years, have depicted how corrupt the minister himself is.’’ It simply beggars belief the extent to which some unscrupulous Nigerians could go in taking liberty with freedom of expression enshrined in the nation’s constitution by violently abridging the rights of others.
Contrary to the integrity-destroying allegation, no son of the minister has a domestic or offshore account with any of the two banks mentioned in the story, Unity Bank and UBA, just as there is no son of the minister called Ibrahim. Even the name of the minister’s first son, Shamsudeen was misspelt as ‘Shamushdeen’.
To accuse the so-called minister’s children of running “a huge network of friends involved
in several shady deals” and to even remotely insinuate that the minister himself is part of the game is tantamount to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that those baying for the minister’s blood over the years without success have now found a reliable ally in Pointblanknews to further orchestrate their evil. No doubt, this ill-motivated design will crumble like others before it.
There is no evidence to support the claim that the minister’s children were running a huge network of friends involved in several shady deals. If there is any substance to this claim, the authors would have cited at least one example to back their claim which was not the case. The point should equally be stressed that no director or head of agency under the FCT Administration has ever been given orders to carry out requests for funds transfer, land allocation or contracts. Let Point blank news give examples to buttress its outrageous claims in this regard.
Against the backdrop of all these contradictions in the report, Ude’s Pointblanknews should endeavour to disabuse the minds of the public by disclosing the full identity of the Ibrahim he referred to in the report so that Nigerians and the world will be better informed. If he insists that he is not telling lies, he should also publish the bank account numbers for all to see. If Ude is indeed sincere, he should pick the gauntlet thrown at him by providing satisfactory answers to the above posers.
Even the allegations that ‘Shamushdeen’ and the unknown Ibrahim were involved in many unwholesome activities such as criminal association, immorality and illegal car racing in Abuja city, among others strange claims, remain just that—fanciful allegations.
Because no son of the minister is involved in the illegal act of car racing; also, Shamsudeen, the first son of the FCT Minister, is a happily married man who is committed to his marriage and does not engage in infidelity. He neither has a girlfriend nor ever presented car gift to any person whether a girl or boy. If Ude wants Nigerians to believe his report, let him publish the name of the director he alleged to be the father of the imaginary 17-year-old girl.
In the interest of peace and the sanctity of journalism profession, it is advisable that Ude immediately withdraws the offensive and misleading story from his site and others where the story might have been syndicated.
What Point blank news and its ilk are practicing is not real journalism, but something that has a strange resemblance to it. Nigerian founding fathers of the profession would be turning in their graves in anguish for the uncontrollable damage Jackson Ude and his band of rampaging cohorts are doing to a noble profession. The pertinent question is: must they sacrifice the ethics of the profession on the altar of filthy lucre?
Salamatu wrote from Abuja. Email: [email protected]
