Garba Shehu Blames ‘Desperate Opposition’ For Bribery Allegation Against Kyari

Mr Garba Shehu has described the bribery allegation against the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, as the work of some opponents of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Shehu said this on Sunday in an interview with Channels Television, one day after a report emerged that Mr Kyari allegedly received a bribe of N29m to award a contract.

“From our own point of view, we think that the Presidency is coming under attack for the fact that we are approaching an election,” said the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity during the interview on Sunday Politics.

“And this is a government that has maintained a corruption-free image all through.”

READ ALSO: Bribery Allegation Against Abba Kyari Is Wrong, Says Presidency

He added, “We have not suffered any major financial scandal and so the opposition is desperate to stick something on the administration. That’s the way we are looking at it.”

Although the Presidency had issued a statement in a swift reaction to the allegation, Mr Shehu said the report was nothing but a fiction.

He disclosed that Mr Kyari has decided to brief his lawyers and to sue the media outfit that published the story, noting that enough opportunity was given to weigh the facts and investigate the allegation.

The presidential aide wondered why such report was published at a time when the general elections were a few months away.

He argued that the present administration was being attacked because President Muhammadu Buhari has stopped several wrongdoings in the country through his anti-corruption campaign.

“This is an administration that has stopped so much wrongdoing. In this country,” Shehu said. “There is a huge number of citizens who have fed fat on the system without doing just anything to justify their drawing enormous benefit from the nation’s treasury.”

He added, “The President has stopped all of that and the thing that is happening is that people who are being deprived, who have this sense of entitlement that the treasury is their birthright, are just looking for people to hunt and to shoot down.”

Mr Shehu also spoke about the nomination and expression of interest forms bought for the President by a group of his supporters.

He assured Nigerians that although the forms have not been presented to President Buhari, the President would always be guided in doing the right thing.