Plateau Governor denies losing N5bn to scammers in Dubai

Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong has described as “laughable, malicious, mischievous and a figment of the writer’s imagination”, a recent story credited to an online media outfit, alleging that he was duped of the sum of N5billion in Dabai while trying to buy property there.‬


In a statement issued Monday in Jos and signed by the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Mark Longyen, he stated the story was a mere piece of thrash that should be consigned to the dustbin of oblivion and ignored by reasonable people.

He noted that the story is the handiwork of his detractors and opposition political elements desperate to paint him black adding that such report is false in its entirety and challenges the authors of the story to produce and publish documentary evidence, if any, from the records of their investigation and show proof as to when and where the N5billion Dubai property transaction took place.

The statement stressed, “Ordinarily, the Governor would have ignored such malicious falsehood which, if read between the lines, is clearly the handiwork of his detractors and opposition political elements desperate to paint him black, but has chosen to respond to it in order not to give credibility to such brazen falsehood and to clear the air for the sake of some gullible members of the public, who might innocently swallow this bait hook, line and sinker.

”The Governor, therefore, denies this wanton, malicious and mischievous report in its entirety and challenges the authors of the story to produce and publish documentary evidence, if any, from the records of their investigation and show proof as to when and where the five billion naira Dubai property transaction took place, which bank was used, as well as all the parties involved, failing which they will face the music as relevant security agencies will be called in to investigate the source of the story.‬”

The statement further wondered “what kind of a professional journalist would credit the source of his story ‎to information he/she claimed to have only picked “from an open discussion at a public centre,” if the author is not a quack and a harbinger of a hatched job aimed mainly to impugn the integrity of the Governor and bring him to disrepute.‬”

‪He admonished the public to beware and not fall victims of such malicious reports emanating from such unregulated online media outfits “that may be sponsored and disseminated by past government officials who are being investigated for corruption.”