2017 budget: 'I didn't say that!', Lai Mohammed denies

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has denied saying that the Federal Government does not know who will sign the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law, stressing that he was misrepresented by a section of the media.
Mohammed, in a statement issued to newsmen on Wednesday by his Special Adviser, Segun Adeyemi, maintained that such report was a malicious misrepresentation of what transpired at the press briefing that took place immediately after the day’s Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a story in a section of the media quoting the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as saying ‘We don’t know who will sign the 2017 budget’.
“This quote is a malicious misrepresentation of what transpired at the post-Federal Executive Council Meeting press briefing on Wednesday, 17 May 2017.
“When the Minister was asked a question relating to the signing of the 2017 Budget, his response was: ‘When it is transmitted to the Presidency, the issue will be addressed.’
“Anything beyond that response amounts to deliberate mischief and should be ignored.”
THEWILL recalls that the spokesman to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande had on tweeted on Wednesday that “when the time comes, everything is clear and he is satisfied, Acting President Osinbajo will assent to the 2017 budget”.