The presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as described as “pure concoction” and “malicious” stories about the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola disguising to have a meeting with President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu in London.
In a statement on Wednesday, the head of the Tinubu Media Office, Mr Tunde Rahman had announced that “the President-elect decided to take a break after the hectic campaign and election season to rest in Paris and London, preparatory to going to Saudi Arabia for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) and the Ramadan Fasting that begins Thursday”.
A section of the media reported that part of Tinubu’s itinerary was a meeting with the CJN in London ahead of the election petitions now before the Court of Appeal.
But the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC presidential campaign council, Mr Bayo Onanuga said the story was a “mere salacious fiction, meant to draw traffic to the discredited purveyor”.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the grossly fake, misleading and malicious story about the Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwoola disguising to meet President-elect Bola Tinubu in London.
“The story was a pure concoction from the hallucinating minds of hatchet men bent on creating doubts and public distrust about the legitimacy of our recent election, which was won by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We refute emphatically that there has been no clandestine meeting between the President-elect and the respected Chief Justice of our country, any where. It’s pure fabricated news, groundless in fact and authenticity.
“To show that the story was a mere salacious fiction, meant to draw traffic to the discredited purveyor, it claimed the Chief Justice left Nigeria for London on 11th March, on a wheel chair to board a plane.
“The President elect left Nigeria on 21st March, 10 clear days thereafter. What kind of appointment or secret meeting will the two men have arranged in London, with so wide disparate arrival dates, except in the imagination of the false news merchants?
“We can confirm that the President-elect, who left Nigeria Tuesday has not been in London. He is right now in France to have a deserved rest, after a hectic campaign that began in January 2022. He will go to London thereafter before proceeding to Mecca for the lesser Hajj.
“As we move towards inauguration on 29th May, 2023, Nigerians should expect more false and salacious news from a section of the Nigerian media, on the payroll of the opposition.
“We urge the media once again to cross check their information from the President-elect media office before rushing to press”.
