ASO Rock has not been able to answer the question about who leaked the speech of President Muhammadu Buhari, a few minutes to his official national broadcast on Monday evening, 26th April.
Though Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Pulicity to President Buhari, confirmed that the speech earlier circulated to the press was not the final draft, he did not identify the official who shared the copy riddled with errors.
Notable among the errors was the date agreed to commence gradual ease of the lockdown.
While President Buhari’s original speech announced 4th May as the effective day to relax the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the leaked speech stated 2nd May.
Many Nigerians have expressed concern over the leak of the President important message to Nigerians, which was glitched by several inaccuracies.
Lekan Otufodunrin, former Editor at The Nation Newspaper (Online) his piece published on 27th April, titled, Who leaked Buhari’s broadcast speech? noted that the two speeches created some confusion for the president’s audience.
“The date for the commencement of the relaxed restriction of movement is 4th May, not 2nd as in the first copy. So, there was initial confusion about which date was right since some people didn’t bother to listen to the broadcast having read the first copy.
“The first copy had no fixed time for the lockdown in Kano, but in his address, the President announced two weeks.”
The ICIR contacted media aides to the president to know where the leaked copy emanated from.
Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president did not respond to text message sent to him.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assitant on Media and Publicity who was also contacted by this reporter did not respond to questions sent to him via SMS
The ICIR also reached out to Tolu Ogunlesi, Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, but as of the time of writing this report, there was no response from him.
Direct Message sent to Bashir Ahmad, Personal Assistant on New Media to the President via his verified social media handle was not also replied.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin