FG Denies Awarding Multi-Billion Naira Oil Pipeline Protection Contract To OPC

 

The Presidency has refuted the allegation by Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that the Federal Government plans to disrupt the 2015 general elections in the southwest region.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the Presidency described the ACN’s allegations  as “blatantly false and grossly misleading.”

The statement entitled, “Lai Mohammed’s Public Disinformation Tactics,” the Presidency   urged members of the public to pay careful attention to those who  believed they could create doubt about the present administration’s efforts by crying wolf where none exists.


The Presidency   recalled that in a previous press statement, it had pointed out that a well-orchestrated campaign by the opposition designed to mislead the public, discredit the person and office of President   Jonathan, and cause disaffection within the polity was being hatched.

The Presidency cited the 2011 general elections, the 2012 state gubernatorial elections in Edo, Kogi, Adamawa, Sokoto, Cross River and Bayelsa as well as others in different parts of the country; which were all adjudged by local and international observers as free, fair and peaceful as President Jonathan’s commitment to strengthening the electoral process.

It added, “Mohammed’s allegations of tenure elongation, instigation of violence, likely emergency rule, and a sinister plan that will make free and fair elections impossible in 2015 are entirely hollow and a figment of his imagination.
“More specifically and to b*ttress his conspiratorial claim, the ACN spokesman alleged that the Federal Government has awarded an oil pipeline protection contract to serve as a smokescreen to fund activities that would create chaos in the South-West. Fact is, no such contract was ever awarded by this administration.”