I never collected N100m from Dasuki – Bode George

Bode George

Eniola Akinkuotu

A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, has denied reports that he collected N100m from embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

He, therefore, slammed online medium, Sahara Reporters, for attempting to implicate him in the $2.1bn arms purchase deal.

George said this in a write-up titled, ‘Hack writers and the contempt for truth’ on Wednesday.

The PDP leader said he met Dasuki only twice.

He said, “I was a victim of this crass journalistic lynching last week when Sahara Reporters published a completely indecorous falsehood linking me to a phantom N100m allegedly doled out by retired Col. Sambo Dasuki. Without any attempt to balance the story or verify the veracity of its claim, the online medium brazenly pushed out a blatant lie in the name of journalism.

“Again, I hereby restate forcefully that I neither collected nor solicited one farthing from Dasuki or anybody else. Throughout his tenure as National Security Adviser, I never met Dasuki except once or twice when he came to brief members of the national caucus.”

The former military governor of the old Ondo State also berated the online medium for addressing him as an ex-convict.

George, who spent two years in Kirikiri Prison for financial impropriety before he was later exonerated by the Justice John Fabiyi-led Supreme Court, said it was unfortunate that the online medium could defame him without any repercussion.

“It is true that free speech and the rubric of liberty is the twin anchor of an enduring democracy. But no genuine democracy can be sustained on crude, licentious journalism wherein the outpost of the Internet is now a substitute for deliberate falsehood and inelegant manufactured tales churned out with active malice to destroy public figures,” he said.

George said it was unfortunate that unscrupulous elements were using the social media to defame innocent Nigerians.

The PDP leader subsequently gave Sahara Reporters seven days to retract the report or meet him in court.

He said, “Journalism is a great profession which must not be tarnished by touts and intemperate mercenaries who take criminal refuge on the Internet and turn it into a lynching platform against perceived enemies.

“Those who think that the distant outpost of the cyber world is a haven for criminal libel and gutter journalism are deceiving themselves. The world is indeed a global village. The long arm of the law reaches everywhere. I intend to take recourse in the law court if the libel against my good name is not withdrawn with a published apology within the next seven days.”