The presidency has asked the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to desist from putting out its “divisive, irresponsible, and bare-faced publicity stunts” IgbereTV reports.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu made the call on Wednesday in a statement titled, ‘SERAP should stop the publicity stunt and render own accountability.’
The piece, according to Mr Shehu, was aimed at addressing the repeated ridiculous claims from SERAP “that it is bringing legal action against the Government and/or President of Nigeria”.
Deepening his argument, the spokesman argued that “very little is known about SERAP, or who funds them – despite their claims of being an organisation that champions transparency and accountability”.
According to him, “to date, SERAP has announced on repeated occasions – each time via a well-funded media campaign – that it is suing the government or President over a range of issues from alleged human rights abuses to alleged corruption. To date, SERAP has not taken their retinue of legal actions to a logical conclusion. They don’t follow through.
“Yet these headline-grabbing publicity stunts, however baseless, succeed in painting an inaccurate picture of life and governance in Nigeria and – more seriously – in sowing division amongst the Nigerian people during a time of heightened global economic volatility and hardship”.
Mr Shehu further said that Nigeria is comfortable that its record as Africa’s leading democracy and largest economy speaks for itself
