Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu, over allegations linking him to funds allegedly stolen by anti-corruption chief, Ibrahim Magu.
An online platform owned by a former aide of President Goodluck Jonathan had published that Magu embezzled over N39 billion and gave Osinbajo N4 billion for soft landing.
The report claimed that unnamed sources within the panel investigating the suspended EFCC boss “exposed the vice president’s involvement in the scandal.”
“Specifically, Magu was said to have mentioned a N4 billion that he released to the VP based on directives the very day the president left the country for the United Kingdom on medical treatment,” part of the publication read.
Reacting to the story, Osinbajo’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, described the claims as “false and baseless fabrications.”
Undone, Osinbajo in a letter to the IGP through his lawyers, Taiwo Osipitan, said the report was untrue and defamatory.
He also copied the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in the letter.
“On the 8th of July 2020, Mr Ude wrote and published on his website materials/stories which are criminally defamatory of our client. We have the instructions of our client that the said publications are injuriously false in every respect,” the lawyer partly said.
Osinbajo also made reference to Ude’s Twitter publication where he again accused the vice president of corruption.
“HushBajo. N4billion. The Ghana investment. Okechukwu Enelamah the erand boy. The secretly recorded night vigil prayers at the Villa Chapel. The letter of resignation written for Buhari in Tunis by Tinubu/Osinabjo while Ba was sick. The scheming to take over. Etc. This na pay back.” the tweet read.
Osinbajo said the tweet was shared on several social media platforms to make him appear like a “dishonest and disloyal public officer and consequently unfit for the position of the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he is occupying,” the official said.
The lawyer asked the IGP to investigate the allegations and if the purveyor was found guilty, the police should initiate criminal proceedings against Mr Ude and his platform to restrain them from future ‘false publications’.