The Nigerian Federal Government on Tuesday formally spoke on the coup scare reports, dismissing them as “unequivocally false and a heinous act of disinformation.”
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told journalists in Abuja that “the report was the figment of the warped imagination of detractors, whose malicious intent was to destabilise the country and undermine the present administration.”
Idris said the government would neither be distracted nor intimidated into abandoning the ongoing reforms aimed at rejuvenating the economy and creating a pathway of prosperity for the citizenry.
He said “it was now evident that some desperate individuals had resorted to publishing fake news to erode public trust in the government and sow the seed of discord in the country.”
Idris said the government would exercise its rights within the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s laws to contain rogue actions to destabilize national security and the nation’s hard-earned democracy.
He urged the public to exercise discernment and refrain from spreading or amplifying the unfounded report, which was being strategically planted on some pliant and compromised news platforms to subvert the nation’s democracy.