Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this Monday in Umuahia during a town hall meeting organised by the Federal Government for the people of Abia State, maintained that the President was neither critically ill nor in any London hospital.
The town hall meeting is a two-way interactive forum which the Federal Government uses to acquaint the people of its activities and also get reactions from the people.
The Abia Town Hall Meeting was held at the International Conference Centre, with five ministers in attendance, including Mohammed, Abia state-born Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, and Minister of Mines and Steel, Bwala Gwari.
Sir Don Ubani, the Publicity Secretary of Peoples Democratic Party in Abia State had raised the issue that the Information Minister, while serving as Publicity Secretary of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) had demanded from the PDP-led government of President Umaru Yar’Adua, a daily bulletin on the health status of the then ailing Yar’Adua and demanded to know why he was not furnishing Nigerians with daily bulletins of the health status of Buhari.
Responding, Mohammed maintained that Buhari was not “critically ill or in hospital. I can say here very boldly and confidently that there is absolutely no cause for alarm.
“Mr. President called me at 2.43 pm on Saturday and we spoke. It is true that I am often asked, so, when you were the spokesperson of APC or spokesperson of ACN, you said this and that. That is correct. I did say that if Mr. President was in the hospital or critically ill, I, as Minister of Information, would give a daily bulletin, but Mr. President is neither critically ill nor is he in the hospital and there is nothing life-threatening about the checks that Mr. President is going through.”
On the issue of herdsmen attacks that have left in its trail, deaths and destruction of farms and crops and other property, the Minister said categorically that the herdsmen were not being sponsored by government.
“We have been living peacefully together before and we shall continue to live together peacefully.
“Now, it is not correct that government is sponsoring or supporting any section against the other, no,” he said.
According to him, everything was being done by security agencies to end herdsmen attacks.
