TheCable

The federal government has described the allegations of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the “concoction of a mind worried by guilt”.

Obasanjo had earlier raised the alarm that the Muhammadu Buhari government was planning to arrest and frame him up.

But in a statement issued on Friday, Lai Mohammed, minister of information, said it is not in the character of the government or the president to do such.

The minister said only those who have skeletons in their cupboards should be afraid.

“This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens,” the statement read.

“That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an inlaw to the cold hands of death.

“The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent. But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe.”

Mohammed said the government would not be distracted by frivolous allegations “from any quarter.”

“Apparently, the impact of this proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible, hence they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation,” he said.

“Added to that is the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction. Faced with this double tragedy, even the strongest of men may begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination. They may start crying wolf where there is none.”