Date: 2018-05-31

(1)Baraje describes newspaper report on the nPDP meeting with Osibanjo on Sarakis trial as blasphemy and flagrant lie

(2)Some elements opt for blasphemy against nPDP ---- Baraje

The defunct New Peoples Democratic Party , (nPDP) a bloc within the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as blasphemy a newspaper and online report that part of the requests of the group to the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, was the stoppage of the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Doctor Bukola Saraki, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Reacting to the report, which he described as a flagrant lie, total blasphemy and far from the truth, the leader of the group, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, disclosed that nothing of that nature was part of the issues raised or discussed at the meeting the group held on Monday with the Vice President at the Presidential Villa , Abuja.

In a statement issued from his media office in Ilorin on Wednesday , the Kwara state capital, Alhaji Baraje said there was no mention of anybody's case talk less of the Senate President, Dr Saraki at the said meeting .

"I want to warn that if this is the way we want to handle the issue by creating bad blood against our group , through the media, it will not augur well for them and we are therefore warning that blasphemy and arrant lies cannot resolve the matter at hand.

"I want to also disclose that at the last meeting, the Vice President requested and appealed to us that we should all keep our mouth shut until we reach the final stuck , that's why we are not talking to the press " Alhaji Baraje added.

According to him , if the media houses concerned did not stop this blasphemy, particularly, The Nation Newspaper , this issue will be very difficult to solve and threatened that the group or him as a person is ready to take any news media to court for blasphemy .

Alhaji Baraje also said that he read in an online publication where they quoted an individual that he (Baraje) was occupying a juicy position of a parastatal and vehemently declared that he had never occupied any position in any board under the present administration or paved way for any position for that matter as the thinking of the man in question is an assumption from his own end.

" I have been existing and living in accordance with my own legal means for the past three years and I'm not complaining. The complaint we are raising is that all the issues we raised when we left PDP , are now resurfacing particularly lack of rule of law , and that there is total anarchy that the government does things as it likes against anybody which was happening in PDP when we left."

Alhaji Baraje went further to explain that the group is not fighting for themselves or for the selfish interest of some individuals among them but rather for members of the public and that some people should not turn it to be a personal fight but that of the Nigerian masses and for good governance , against anarchy , arrogance and we are also fighting against poor economy where an average Nigerian is hungry and government seems to be doing nothing and we are also fighting against insecurity where lives and property of Nigerians are in jeopardy.

According to him , if a section of the media is trying to make it personal and want to see it as if we are fighting for our own sake, it will not augur well for the peace of the APC.