Mr. Jibril and other ministers-designate were quoted by The Punch on Saturday as saying they were under no obligation to declare their assets publicly as the president and his deputy did.
A Minister-designate, Ibrahim Jibril, has denied a report quoting him as saying he would not emulate President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in making public his assets declaration documents submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Messrs. Buhari and Obasanjo recently released details of their submissions to the CCB to fulfil promises made to Nigerians during the electioneering campaigns.
Mr. Jibril and other ministers-designate were quoted by The Punch on Saturday as saying they were under no obligation to declare their assets publicly as the president and his deputy did.
Specifically, Mr. Jibril was said to have spoken through his media aide as saying it was unnecessary following on the two leaders’ footsteps.
The media aide, Ibrahim Umar, was quoted to have said, “It is not necessary to emulate Buhari and Osinbajo.”
However, Mr. Jibrin issued a statement late on Saturday saying he neither made those comments nor has a media aide going by the name Ibrahim Umar.
“While I am unable to ascertain at this time whether my colleagues quoted in the story spoke to the paper, I can say categorically, without any fear of contradiction, that I did not, at any time, speak to anyone from that newspaper.
“The paper quoted a certain Ibrahim Umar, who it described as my media aide, as speaking to it on my behalf. I however have no such aide or associate. So it is either the quote was manufactured or it was given to the paper by an impostor,” Mr. Jibril said.
The new minister said he remained available to always respond to media enquiries about his services to the Nigerian people, adding “I would continue to insist that the media deal with me with utmost professionalism and transparency.
“In that light, I demand that The Punch retracts, in its entirety, the publication about me in its publication of today (Saturday). I also urge the media to always check and crosscheck their facts before attributing any comments to me,” he said.
When contacted, the Acting Editor of Saturday Punch, Dayo Oketola, promised to send the newspaper’s response on the claims by Mr. Jibril to our reporter by via text message.
He was, however, yet to do that at the time of publishing this story.