VP Osinbajo, SaharaReporters And Junk Journalism, By Dada Kunle

The distorted investigative news published by SaharaReporters on Monday 15th March, 2016 that Vice President Osinbajo’s Office lied about Indian trip is not only mischievous but also a display of ‘unprofessionalism’ and a deliberate attempt to cause confusion in the polity which the online news outfit is gradually becoming notorious for.

Becoming increasingly clearer is the fact that SaharaReporters does not care about authenticity of information disseminated but to dish out anything that will direct traffic to their blog relying on sources who obviously have superficial idea about issues and in this case the workings of the Presidency.

It is an unwritten rule that the President and his Vice cannot leave the shores of the country at the same time under normal circumstances. For this particular issue, President Buhari had to attend an assignment in Equatorial Guinea, a development that made the Vice President to stay back home while the Trade and Investment Minister- Dr. Okeh Enelemah led Nigerian delegation to India.

SaharaReporters alleged that a 12-man advance team from the VP’s office had departed for India and a whopping sum of $250,000 wasted. This is the height of mischief and Nigerians would either like them to substantiate their claim or apologise to the Office of the Vice President which they have deliberately denigrated.

The President and his Vice are strong advocates of investigative journalism that would factually bring different developments in the nation to the spotlight but it is expected that this be carried out with due diligence and in line with international best practices.

Conclusively, the truth is that no advance team left the shores of Nigeria from the Vice President’s office for India and funds not wasted. Nigerians should dismiss the falsehood SaharaReporters is spreading.

Dada Kunle is a Socio-Development Researcher. He wrote in from Nigeria