By Johnson Eyiangho
The Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) has advised the opposition to desist from feeding the public with falsehoods which can promote disaffection and ill will toward the President Muhammadu-led government.
The group gave the advice while reacting to the opposition’s allegations that the Buhari administration donated $500 million to the Hillary Clinton Campaign.
Mr Muhammad Labbo, the Chairman of the group, in a statement described the accusation as “product of deliberate mischief, downright lies and distortion of reality intended to mislead undiscerning Nigerians”.
“Buhari administration could not have made such donation to any candidate or political party in the United States because it would be illegal to do so, and that President Buhari would be the last person to approve illegal donation of any magnitude,” Labbo said.
He explained that under the American Campaign Finance Law, foreign nationals or organisations were prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in connection with any election in the United States, or donate money to influence the election in the US.
Labbo recalled that when ex-Chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, set up an organisation to mobilise donations for President Obama election campaign in 2012, her organisation was ordered to disband because its objective of raising money for a foreign politician was illegal.
He said that the American Campaign Finance Law also provided disclosure rules, which would have made it difficult to keep such alleged and “fictional $500 million dollars donation secret”.
According to him, if such donation is ever made even secretly, the system of disclosure and scrutiny in the US would have exposed it.
”If the rumour mongers were sure of their facts, they should have done a favour to Nigerians by publishing the evidence when the alleged donation was purportedly made to the Clinton Campaign,” he said.
Labbo wondered why the rumour peddlers did not make those “laughable allegations public until after Hillary Clinton lost the election”.
He advised Nigerians to be wary of opposition politicians “who feed them with intentional lies in order to mislead and misinform”, adding that in this Internet age people could verify the provisions of American law pertaining to campaign financing.
-NAN
