Reports on friction between Kyari, Oyo-Ita were fabricated- Shehu

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has downplayed media reports on the feud between the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari and Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, saying that they were fabricated.

Shortly before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, there was an altercation involving the two top government officials.

While Oyo-Ita’s countenance said it all, Shehu argued that it was improper to report that they quarreled.
He argued that “what they were discussing was unknown to journalists.”

The presidential aide said, “by tradition, the media organizations send their best reporters to the State House. This should reflect, at all times on the quality of reporting,” he told state house correspondents.

“I am a journalist myself, and in journalism, you are not supposed to report anything other than the facts of what you heard or observed directly, or what you were told by a firsthand or authoritative eyewitness.

“You cannot add two and two to make twenty-two and present it to the public as news.

“People can debate and argue over issues, but to suggest that there was a feud, a fight or a clash was to take matters beyond what they were.”

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja