Nigeria: Zamfara Govt Denies Rift Over First Lady

Stories published in Daily Trust and again in Weekly Trust last week about an alleged conflict for the position of First Lady of Zamfara State were a tissue of lies and half-truths concocted and peddled around for a diabolical purpose, Director of Press Affairs in the Gusau Government House Malam Adamu Sani Katuru said in Abuja yesterday. He said the Zamfara State governor Alhaji Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi did not want to respond to them in order not to dignify falsehood, but that he reluctantly agreed to do so in order to clear the minds of innocent newspaper readers.

Saying there was "no iota of credibility" to the stories, Katuru also said Governor Shinkafi believes that lies only flower but do not bear fruit, and that "the reporter and those sponsoring him will not achieve their diabolical mission, because he has no reason to fight them." Katuru said the Zamfara State government was consoled by the fact that other governors had over the past year, had their families dragged into the political mud with stories of alleged quarrels about First Ladyship. The governors of Adamawa, Bauchi and Kebbi States, among others, all suffered from such malicious stories in the past year, he said. He said the President's wife Hajia Turai Yar'adua also suffered such campaigns from "people who have no fear of God in their minds" but that the stories all fizzled away due to their false foundations.

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