Mohammed said Okupe’s statement was a figment of his imagination and he deserved an award in fiction writing for a perfect work of imagination.
Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, says it was President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed him a minister, not Bukola Saraki, Nigeria's Senate President.
This was contained in a statement he made in Abuja on Monday while reacting to another statement by Doyin Okupe, the Special Adviser on (Media) to the Director-General of the PDP Campaign Council.
Okupe had given credit to Saraki, for the minister’s appointment but Mohammed said it was “laughable” that anyone would seek to take credit for his appointment.
Mohammed said Okupe’s statement was a figment of his imagination and he deserved an award in fiction writing for a perfect work of imagination.
The Minister said: “The entire statement by Dr. Okupe is nothing but fiction writing, for which he deserves a hall of infamy award (in the fiction writing segment). Not one of the claims he made in his statement is true.
"For the record, Lai Mohammed owes his appointment as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to President Mohammadu Buhari and no one else. It is therefore laughable that anyone will seek to take credit for that appointment.
“We challenge Dr. Okupe, who concocted the story in question, to make available to Nigerians any evidence he may have to support his assertion that the President sought the permission of Dr. Saraki to appoint Alhaji Mohammed as minister.
"We understand that Dr. Okupe’s cheap attempt at the mud-throwing is nothing but a proxy fight, rooted deeply in the politics of Kwara State.
“We are aware that Okupe’s boss is feeling the heat emanating from the ‘O To Ge’ (enough is enough) movement in Kwara, and that even the strongest of men will become disoriented and disillusioned at losing the support of a people who once venerated them to high heavens.
"But that is a self-inflicted wound for which Okupe’s boss, an acclaimed slave master, has no one but himself to blame. Alhaji Mohammed is very proud to lead the ‘O To Ge’ movement that is set to finally bring down the Berlin Wall of political hegemony in Kwara State and send Dr. Okupe’s boss into political oblivion."
Mohammed said Saraki’s defeat would give Okupe the opportunity to fully devote his time to fiction writing.
"That will also free Dr. Okupe from merely being his master’s voice, so he can fully devote his time to his new-found pastime — fiction writing," he added.