FG not Spending $800m on Image Laundering -Presidency

The Federal Government says the report that it intends to spend 800 million dollars on phantom public relations is false and malicious. A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, on Tuesday in Abuja, said that Federal Government's topmost priority was security and not image laundering. "Reports in national and foreign media that the Federal Government is currently in the process of recruiting an international public relations firm to “counter mounting criticism both inside and outside the country” are completely false and baseless. "The suggestion that the Federal Government intends to spend a staggering sum of 800 million dollars on the phantom public relations effort to ease `increasing pressure over its response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls' is also wholly untrue. "Coming as they do, at a particularly difficult and sensitive time for the entire nation, the Federal Government considers the reports of a drive to recruit consultants to launder its image highly insensitive, deplorable, absurd and very alicious." Abati said government condemned the attempt by purveyors of the reports to incite the Nigerian public against the Federal Government through the circulation of falsehoods.