Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture has denied having 1.2billion dollars (about N400 billion) in his bank account.

“How else can you explain that people will believe and circulate a fake report that the Minister of Information and Culture that is yours truly has 1.2 billion dollars in his imaginary bank account? Let’s examine this for a moment. 1.2 billion dollars is about N400 billion.”

“The entire yearly budget of the Ministry of Information and Culture, where I preside, is under 15 billion Naira and these include salaries, overhead and capital projects. Assuming, without conceding that the Minister somehow manages to transfer the entire budget into his personal account, it will take 25 years for him to amass N400 billion.”

“Yet, this disinformation was lapped up by the public, similar imaginary huge sums of money had been credited to other ministers. The oppositions are inventing the fake and malicious stories using bloggers and some online media to malign government officials. The intention of the perpetrators and carriers of the reports are to distract the government to lose focus, but it will not fall to their antics.”