The Chief Press Secretary to the Niger State governor, Danladi Ndayebo, has described as "blatant lie" a report which claimed that he provided information to the effect that the Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, has pulled out of the new Peopled Democratic Party, PDP. He, therefore, demanded a retraction of the said story published in the Daily Trust of October 30, even as he asked the paper to conduct an in-house investigation to verify and ascertain the source, and intent and clarify the misconception that he was a fifth columnist in the government of Governor Aliyu.
Ndayebo, in a statement made available to National Mirror, said that while he would rather not join issues with any newspaper, because "as the Chief Press Secretary to a governor, newspapers and the electronic media are purveyors of my practice," the truth was that he was not the "originator of the story in question. Whoever weaves it around me will himself or herself be troubled in his or her mind now because it is simply not true."
The statement further reads: "I have always issued statements, signed or spoken on record with my colleagues on issues concerning my job as the spokesperson of the Chief Servant of Niger State. I challenge whoever planted the story in Daily Trust to set the record straight by producing audio record or/ and transcript of my interview with the reporter on the issue."
Wondering why the newspaper which reported in its October 29 edition that he was "indifferent and 'neither confirmed nor denied' the rumored jumping of ship by the Chief Servant," Ndayebo queried the volte face the following day by the paper, saying that he did not want to believe that the latter report was meant to deceive the reading public.
He reiterated that he was aware that Governor Aliyu is solidly behind the Group of Seven, G7, governors and the new PDP and that the governor was on a rescue mission based on his conscience and conviction