Date: 2019-01-01

Kwara youths under the aegis of Kwara Youths Strategic Movement, have berated the minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed over his alleged persistent attempts to blame the Senate President for the April 5, 2018 armed robbery incident in Offa.

The youths said Mohammed's wrong assumptions on the Offa robbery incident were capable of overheating the polity and causing political instability.

The youths, in a press statement signed by the Coordinator of Kwara Youths Strategic Movement, Mr Gegele Ahmed Ibrahim and made available to newsmen in Ilorin said the minister has "demonstrated proclivity for propagating outright falsehood and peddling misinformation."

They said that Mohammed was only being clever by half by insinuating that the Senate President had a hand in the Offa Bank Robbery.

According to the statement, "We are completely taken aback, by the statement credited to the Minister of information and culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed, in an attempt to score cheap political points, linking the Senate President to the Offa bank robbery.

"In the case of the Offa bank robbery, it is common place that the suspects arrested in connection with the robbery either implicated the Senate President or dropped his name in the course of investigation, despite unrestrained attempt by his political adversaries to implicate him.

"The Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki, responded in writing to the Police when he was asked to do so, reiterating his innocence and till date, either the Nigerian police or any court of competent jurisdiction has found him culpable.

"Why then should a revered politician and senior citizen like Alhaji Lai Mohammed who should be an epitome of peaceful coexistence and an advocate for the rule of law, go completely berserk by claiming that the Senate President had a hand in the robbery.

"We call on the Minister of Information not to throw caution to the wind in an attempt to score cheap political points.

"He must always remember that we all have a binding duty to uphold the ethos of fairness, equity and justice, any departure from this acceptable standard is disingenuous, mischievous and wicked!

"We implore the general public to avoid playing politics with the unfortunate incident and avoid making statements capable of causing confusion, especially at this critical period when the 2019 election is fast approaching," the statement read.