From AIDOGHIE PAULI­NUS, Abuja
The Director of Media and Publicity, Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) Presiden­tial Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that the Defence Minister, General Aliyu Gusau, never attended the same secondary school with the presidential candidate of the All Progres­sives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari.
The former aviation minis­ter said that the misinformation was a ploy by the APC to de­ceive the public about the aca­demic qualifications of Buhari.
An online medium, Green­bargereporters.com, had quoted Gusau, in a purported interview that he (Gusau) and Buhari were students of the Katsina Provincial School and that Buhari passed Cambridge/ WASCE.
But Fani-Kayode, in a state­ment yesterday in Abuja, said the story was pure falsehood, adding that it was indicative of the desperation of the opposi­tion.
He stated: “It has been brought to our attention that a number of online publica­tions and newspapers have published a false story suggest­ing that General Aliyu Gusau, the Minister of Defence, has defended General Buhari on the certificate issue and has said that they attended Katsina College together. This is pure falsehood and crass disinfor­mation and it is indicative of the type of shameless despera­tion and propaganda that the opposition is now indulging in.
“Not only did General Gusau not attend any school with General Buhari or go to Katsina College, but he has also never sought to defend or absolve him in the ongoing controversy about his school certificate.
“We urge the Nigerian people to be very wary of the antics of the opposition when it comes to this and virtually all other matters. And we encour­age them to continue to insist that General Buhari should stop clutching at straws and prove that he is the man of integrity that he claims to be by producing his school cer­tificate. Anything less than that is simply unacceptable and all the filthy lies, tricks and dirty tactics in the world cannot help him.”