Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has cried out over what he sees as an attempt to demonise him and give the impression that he is an unreliable man who betrays people.

Okupe in a reaction to an uncomplimentary publication about him in last Sunday’s edition of The Guardian vehemently rejected the allegation that betrayed the late Bashorun MKO Abiola by supporting the unjust annulment of his June 12, 1993 presidential election by the military.

“My attention has been drawn to an article on page 70 of Sunday Guardian of 24th March, 2013 in which one Anote Ajeluorou wrote an opinion about me as one of THE PRESIDENT’S MEN,” Okupe said in a letter to the paper’s editor, a copy of which was made available to News Express.

“I feel compelled to react to this write up in view of the fallacies, falsehood and unfortunate display of ignorance and malice displayed by the writer,” he added.

Replying in full to the allegation, the presidential spokesman said: “While not really concerned about the warped mentality of Anote Ajeluorou and his jaundiced evaluation of my part in the present administration, I am really disappointed that a writer who works for an eminent Newspaper as the Guardian whose motto is CONSCIENCE NURTURED BY TRUTH could sacrifice truth and publish outright falsehood on a subject matter he obviously knows nothing about.

“For the avoidance of doubt I was the ONLY national officer of the National Republican Convention who resigned from the position I occupied and from the party in protest against the annulment of the 1993 presidential elections won by the late Chief MKO Abiola. My resignation was well reported in the Nigerian Media and was a major issue in National political discourse for many months. How then did this writer come about the claim that ‘Okupe pointedly supported the annulment of that election?’

“The writer carried the display of his ignorance further by alleging that I ‘acted as strong anti democratic element’ when it is on record that I was the youngest member of the inner core of the National Democratic Coalition NADECO which championed the struggle for the actualization of MKO Abiola’s mandate and a return to democratic rule in Nigeria. I was arrested and detained on the spurious allegations of plotting to overthrow the Abacha administration and also suffered many deprivations in pursuit of my convinctions. Elder statesmen like Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele and former Governor Segun Osoba are living witnesses to these incontrovertible and unassailable facts.

“These lies were obviously the basis upon which this writer said ‘unfortunately Dr Okupe’s antecedents do not recommend him for the job he has been called to do at this critical time in the life of Nigeria.’

“The content of Anote’s piece suggests that he might actually be a hired writer who concocts fiction to distort facts which really makes him an unsuitable staff of a reputable newspaper like The Guardian.

“I reject this damaging account and see it as a deliberate attempt to defame my name, family and all that I have stood for in the whole of my political career to date.

“I demand a retraction of this offending article and an unreserved apology with equal visibility from The Guardian.”

•Photo: Dr. Okupe.

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