There have been allegations of complicity against a member of the House of Representatives from Kwara State, Zakari Mohammed, over power outage during the trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, last Wednesday.

However, the lawmaker has denied any involvement in whatever form on the power outage, claiming that the report was stage-managed and politically motivated to hoodwink the public.

Reacting to the report associating him with the light-out during Saraki’s trial, he said: “I have read a story in an online medium, which insinuated that I was behind power outage last Wednesday at the sitting of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, during the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

“The said publication was not only false but an outright balderdash, sheer rubbish and a deliberate attempt to use this medium to tarnish my hard-earned reputation.

“The so-called stage-managed and politically-motivated report was designed to hoodwink unsuspecting public to believe that I am a violent political office holder.

“To set the records straight, I had no hands in the outage at the CCT Tribunal. I have no relationship with any staff or technicians at the tribunal which would have made me to influence the outage.

“I also do not work with or own shares in Abuja Electricity Distribution Company to have wielded contacts to disrupt power supply to the tribunal.

“I have never met with technicians in charge of the alternative source of power for the tribunal.”

Mohammed, who is Chairman of House Committee on Basic Education, further said: “In the jaundiced story, which was branded as an exclusive copy, no attempt was made to speak with the management of the tribunal on what led to the outage.

“Other than a curious security source, there was no fact to substantiate the so-called scoop which by all-intent was meant to achieve a predetermined agenda.

“In defiance of the ethics of journalism, I was not contacted by the publisher of the story for my own side of the story. I am the most accessible member of the House of Representatives.

“As a journalist and the former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, I obliged the press unfettered access to information. The said medium chose to give me a blackout to destroy my person.

“It was true that I attended the court session like other members of the National Assembly; we all experienced the outage at the sitting and bore the heat like everyone. It sounds absurd that I will sponsor outage to cause discomfort for myself and others.”

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