Lai Mohammed is a shameless fake news machine — lawyer
Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong has unloaded on information and culture minister Lai Mohammed.
Effiong called Mohammed “shameless” after the minister criticised a CNN report on the Lekki Toll Plaza shooting which happened exactly one month ago.
Mohammed had, on Thursday, called CNN’s reporting “irresponsible” and “not balanced” and threatened to sanction the US-based international news network.
The minister also called claims by multiple witnesses that Nigerian soldiers killed protesters at the tollgate “a hoax”.
But Effiong fired back at Mohammed by asking him to look in the mirror if he was in search of the peddlers of false news.
“Lai Mohammed is the greatest agent of falsehood in Nigeria,” Effiong said on Thursday.
“Imagine the clown threatening to sanction CNN. Shameless man.”
Although Mohammed claims he has never lied to the Nigerian people, critics scoff at the assertion and allege that the minister launched a campaign of lies against former president Goodluck Jonathan.
After Mohammed’s boss, Muhammadu Buhari, defeated Jonathan, the minister promised that the current president would never regulate social media.
He also promised that the Buhari government would allow state-run Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) operate without government interference.
Both promises remain unfulfilled as the NTA is nowhere near independent, and Mohammed now says the government must not only regulate social media but also acquire the technology to “shut down the internet at will”.
Meanwhile, CNN has replied the Buhari government that it stands by its report on Lekki shooting which contained “video evidence” of fatalities the Nigerian authorities continue to deny.
