Allaged N250m Bribe From Katsina State Government: Lt. Gen Buratai Vow To Institute N10b Claim Against Shehu Mahadi

The private counsel to Lieutenant General TY Buratai, Osuagwu ugochukwu esq has vow to take a legal action against one Mr Mahdi Shehu operating under Dialogue Group Ltd accusing LT General TY Buratai of receiving N250,000,000 from Katsina State Government, he made the assertion at a world press conference in Katsina today 21 July 2020.
The text of the world press conference continued in parts” “My attention has been drawn to a malicious, false, fabricated and faceless online publication and audio statement circulated on or about 7 July 2020 in Kaduna by one Shehu Mahdi who without caution and with intent to cause injury to the hard earned reputation of Lieutenant General TY Buratai and incite the good people of Katsina state against the Chief Of Army Staff alleged without any substantiated facts that the Chief Of Army Staff received cash of N250,000,000 from the Katsina state government on 15 November 2017 as welfare for commissioning of NEW BATTALLION OFFICE.”
“As if he was delirious, the said Shehu Mahdi went on to claim, on the said audio clip, that he has verifiable facts and hard evidence. Knowing that he that alleges must proof, the said author went on to procure and spin a typed 15 page statement of expenditure titled 2015 April 2020 expenditure of escrow security account of Katsina State Government where he mischievously and malevolently inserted the title CAS as though he meant COAS on page 8”.
“That was all the said author had as his brewed hard facts to prove his allegation on those he mentioned in the said fraudulent catalogue of expenditure he solely concocted. no payment voucher was enclosed. No release warrant for the fund was enclosed. No name of recipient was also enclosed with time the cash was allegedly received forgetting that it will take about 24 days for an average person to count and collect cash of N250 million going by the present financial regulation.”
The statement further explained that “Interestingly, the Katsina State Government, the purported giver of the said greek gift of N250M has debunked the said smear allegation of the self styled activist, Shehu Mahdi and stated categorically that the Katsina State Government Never Gave Lieutenant General TY Buratai any such N250,000,000 for commissioning of new barracks in katsina on 15 November 2017 as alleged or on any other date.”
“Gentlemen of the press it is now clear that Shehu Mahdi has clearly and grossly failed to substantiate the single pernicious allegation he made out against the chief of army staff. He that alleges must prove-Allegare Probationem. He merely set out perhaps in concert with his concealed pseudo thespians to malign, rupture, denigrate and injure the hard earned reputation of Lieutenant General TY Buratai with such baseless, fictititious and hollow claims.
“It is now clear that the sleazy aim of Shehu Mahdi and his cohorts are to cause ill will and incite the good people of Katsina state against Lieutenant General TY Buratai and cause the Chief Of Army Staff To lose concentration in keeping the peace and security in Katsina state which he is striving to achieve and has achieved. The actions of Shehu Mahdi clearly goes against section 24 of Cybercrime (prohibition, prevention ETC) ACT 2015. Certainly Shehu Mahdi will in no distant time have his day in court to answer for this capricious, reckless, malicious and criminal defamation of the character of lieutenant general ty buratai”
It also emphasisi that “The era where public officers are instalmentally blackmailed, harassed and intimidated by people in the like of Shehu Mahdi needs to be curtailed. In this era of hate speech, there is need to put an end to the mindless and unfounded electronic and social media harassment of public officers in the country. The whistle blowing policy of the Government must not be abused. We however must be quick to mention that whistle must be blown for the right reason always or we stand blown off by the pressure of our whistle.”
In conclusion he statement says “I further have the instructions of Lieutenant General Ty Buratai to demand the immediate retraction of the defamatory publication by Shehu Mahdi by way of an unblurrred and unequivocal apology to our client prominently published in at least three (3) local Newspapers in katsina STATE within 48 hours and that he restrain himself from further defamation of our client forthwith otherwise, a libel suit against him will commence and I shall be claiming the sum of N10, 000,0000,000.00 (Ten Billion Naira) as damages for defamation and not excluding further criminal prosecution vide law enforcement agencies including that of the Directorate Of Legal Services (Army)”.