Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Friday, said he has many libel cases filed against him by Nigerians.
He spoke on Friday while featuring on TVC’s ‘This Morning’ show monitored by PUNCH.
Mohammed also said the Federal Government has not relented in its prosecution of politicians and former government officials charged with various corrupt allegations.
When asked about the status of the government’s fight against corruption, the minister said, “We are on course; we are very much on course. The programmes of activities that the various anti-corruption agencies of government such as the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission), Code of Conduct Bureau have been embarked upon.
“But more importantly is that when people talk about corruption, a lot of corruption comes when the system is opaque, not transparent. That is why we were able to identify that 40% of the scoring methodology is around the ease of doing business and unless you address that, you will also be scoring low. That is why we embarked on Ports Reforms. Ports Reforms are very important, it will be slow but it will help the narratives.
“In addition to these preventive measures in the system, we have not halted the prosecution of high-profile Nigerians who are involved in fraud, we’ve not stopped. Of course, some of these things are not what you can say on air because as I speak today, I have various libel cases against me but I know that we have not stopped but we should not focus our attention on the high-profile cases.
“Corruption is something that is a bit systemic and that is why we are taking that approach from the very beginning.”
Many Nigerians on social media had in the past accused the minister of reeling out fallacious propaganda under the guise of defending the slips of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
Mohammed was also said to have defended the Buhari regime by saying no death was recorded when soldiers shot at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, during the #EndSARS protests despite claims by families of the victims.
PUNCH had earlier reported that the minister petitioned a foreign media outlet, CNN, over its report on the Lekki Toll Plaza which he described as a ‘massacre without bodies’.
He had said some “unscrupulous persons” including celebrities circulated fake news on social media that aggravated the violence that trailed the two-week demonstration.
