TheCable

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says the reports on the clash between Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president and Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of service of the federation, were fabricated.

There was an altercation involving the two top officials before the commencement of this week’s federal executive council (FEC) meeting.

Although Oyo-Ita’s countenance said it all, Shehu argued that it was improper to report that they quarrelled.

He said what they were discussing was unknown to journalists.

“By tradition, the media organizations send their best reporters to the State House. This should reflect, at all times on the quality of reporting,” he told state house correspondents.

“I am a journalist myself, and in journalism, you are not supposed to report anything other than the facts of what you heard or observed directly, or what you were told by a firsthand or authoritative eyewitness.

“You cannot add two and two to make twenty-two and present it to the public as news.

“People can debate and argue over issues, but to suggest that there was a feud, a fight or a clash was to take matters beyond what they were.”

Watch the video of the argument, believed to be about the leaked memo in which Oyo-Ita warned Buhari about the implications of the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of pension task force committee.