Fashola debunks newspaper claim, says no list of possible successors yet

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has debunked Saturday’s front page report in a national newspaper  which claimed he had drawn up a list of five candidates, one of who would succeed him. Describing the claim as ridiculous, Fashola said he has neither compiled a “short” nor “long list”.

He spoke with reporters after the First Lagos International Table Tennis Classics at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.

Fashola said: “I did not compile any list, whether short or long. Saturday Sun acted irresponsibly because it had an opportunity, if it ever got such a story, to clarify things with me. I will like the paper to present the purported list to the public.

“I deny such a list vehemently and I am already talking to my lawyers. It is very sad that the paper has no respect for the populace. People work very hard to earn money and the least they deserve after buying newspapers is to read true stories, not fabrications planted on the front page.”

The governor said “publishing deliberate falsehood” was the height of corruption and could be likened to obtaining people’s money by false pretence.

The Nation