No responsible Parliament depends on fake news to attack a sovereign state — Lai Mohammed blasts UK

The federal government has dismissed the resolution of the UK parliament to sanction Nigerian government for the handling of the Endsars protest, saying it’s only an irresponsible government that relies on fake news to attack a sovereign state.

The UK Parliament’s Petitions Committee on Monday open the debate prompted by a petition signed by over 200,000 Nigerians to sanction the federal government for its handling of the October 20 Endsars protest in Lagos.

A member of the Petitions Committee, Theresa Villiers MP, opened the debate, while the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office sent a minister to respond.

The lawmakers agreed that the UK government should investigate the Lekki incident, and sanction individuals involved by freezing their assets and restricting their visas.

But the federal government dismissed the debate, saying parliamentarians are just reacting, and that’s how far they can go.

“The federal government is not panicky at all. The resolution of the UK Parliament is not necessarily the decision of the UK government.

“And no responsible government will consider sanctioning the federal government based on fake news and hearsay without getting in touch with the government,” said Information Minister Lai Mohammed Tuesday in Abuja.

“Two issues – the resolution of the UK Parliament doesn’t represent the position of the government of the UK and only the government can sanction and parliament can only make resolutions.

“Secondly, we are very confident that no responsible government, no serious government, is going to consider imposing sanctions on other countries based on fake news and unverified videos.

“They will also do their own painstaking investigations and also ask for the side of the country. So, we have no reason to panic at all because we know that all the evidence before them is fake news- nothing of big news.”