COVID-19: Lai Mohammed denies ever saying there’s no hunger in Nigeria

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has debunked some reports recently attributed to the federal government, describing them as fake news.

The Minister, while speaking on Monday at the daily press briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, lamented the some elements were bent on distracting the federal government’s efforts at fighting the pandemic.

It the same vein, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, also described the belief within a section of the population that COVID-19 is an elite disease as grossly erroneous.

Mohammed decried the fact that those behind fake news were bent on distracting the work of the committee

The Minister denied ever saying there was no hunger in the country in response to complaints by a large section of the population in reaction to the restriction order and other stringent measures put in place to fight to pandemic.

“Those who are bent on distracting the Federal Government through fake news from its focused fight against COVID-19 have not relented.

“The latest in this is the claim that I said there is no hunger in the land and that the federal government has made available N100 billion to Nigerians. It is fake. There was no time I said it nor anybody in the Taskforce said so.

“Two, they are also carrying a fake news that members of the Taskforce have agreed on the sharing formula of the money that is coming in to the Taskforce. Once again, it is false.

“These people are bent on distracting the government from its focus fight against COVID-19. One of the reasons we have this daily press conference is to give you updates on COVID-19.

“Any other news not emanating from either the ministers or this press conference related to COVID-19 cannot be attributed to us.

“The NCDC has a website and you can get an update on COVID-19. Some websites are notorious for this fake news and one of them is reporterspressng.com. I will advise Nigerians not to go there,” he said.