A purported ‘latest letter’ by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the state of the nation currently in circulation on social media is an old letter written two years ago by Mr Obasanjo.
According to the fast trending report being shared on social media, Mr Obasanjo on Tuesday allegedly condemned the activities of herdsmen and charged President Buhari to stop the “smouldering ethnic agitations” to avoid being seen as a leader fanning “the embers of hatred, disaffection and violence.”
PREMIUM TIMES findings, however, showed that the latest reports on the letter are misleading because the letter is not a fresh one; it is simply a recirculated letter from 2019.
On July 15, 2019, the letter was published by PREMIUM TIMES. In the letter, Mr Obasanjo, who served as president between 1999 and 2007, said the country had been consumed by violence and ethnic divisions since Mr Buhari came into power.
It was written a week after the killing of Funke Olakunrin, daughter of Yoruba leader, Reuben Fasoranti. The former president called on the military to end the public shaming of its personnel.
Our correspondent got a copy of the ‘latest letter’ in circulation and compared it with that issued in 2019. PREMIUM TIMES realised that all the contents are the same.
When contacted on Tuesday, Kayode Akinyemi, Mr Obasanjo’s spokesperson, confirmed that the letter in circulation was written in 2019.
This article is a republished content from PREMIUM TIMES per our Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with newsrooms and media organisations.
