Buhari Denies Ordering Pinnick’s Prosecution

By Talatu Bala

The Presidency has described as `fake news’ a press release in circulation, to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the arrest and prosecution of Amaju Pinnick, the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a report went viral in social media in the last 24 hours indicating that there were palpable fears in the country’s football family following alleged President Buhari’s directive for the prosecution of Amaju Pinnick, over a litany of corruption allegations levelled against him.

“The allegations which also involved funds embezzlement are in billions of naira,’’ the report quoted.

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But, a presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, dismissed the report as untrue and false.

He said: “This is fake news because anyone familiar with the President’s unmitigated and unshakable commitment to the due processes of the law will not make such assumptions of the President.

“The position of the President that allegations of criminal nature should be addressed only by investigation and law enforcement agencies, within the framework of the law has not changed.

“It is not in the nature of President Buhari to say go and arrest that man or woman as formed the practice in the past.

“Rather, he allows all allegations of this nature to be addressed using the mechanism of the rule of law even as law enforcement and investigation agencies should not in any way be hampered in performing their duties.

“At the same time, nobody should drop names to seek to influence the course of those investigations.’’NAN