Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Walid Jibrin has raised the alarm over alleged threat to his life.
In a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna, Jibrin revealed that since he was discharged from hospital where he was admitted after suffering stroke, he has been receiving calls from some unknown numbers.
According to him, the first of such calls was from someone who claimed to be a journalist, demanding a huge sum of money from him. He revealed that the calls were followed by series of disturbing text messages purportedly from reputable editors of media houses. He said the calls were recorded and submitted to security agencies for investigation.
The statement reads: “Shortly after I was discharged from the hospital where I had been on admission for almost two weeks, as a result of an attack from stroke, I thought the threat to my life was over until I started receiving calls from some strange numbers on my phone.
“Since the first call where the caller identified himself as a journalist and demanded a huge amount of money from me, I have constantly been bombarded with series of such calls, all threatening my life.”
Jibrin also observed that “these were later followed by a number of anonymous text messages and calls claiming they are from very reputable editors of media houses in the country, and all asking me to send them some millions of naira to stop a purported damaging report on me from being published.
“I have since disregarded the content of the alleged story as they are clearly spurious, laughable and lacking in substance, but the frequency of the calls has become quite irritating and like anything annoying, has vitiated the suitable atmosphere I need for my full recovery.”
Jibrin, a former journalist who served at the Nigeria Broadcasting Service (NBS) in Lagos under Christopher Kolade and was later transferred to Maiduguri, said this development was quite worrisome as it discredits journalism.
“I am appealing to these people to stop spoiling the name of our reputable editors who are working round the clock to ensure the dissemination of credible information to the society by not dragging their names in the attempt to dupe unsuspecting and law abiding members of the society. Journalism is a noble profession which should be practiced with decency, decorum and high sense of responsibility”, he said.
He warned the perpetrators that such act was criminal and punishable under the law.
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