Presidency $800m Image Laundering Plan is false,

The Goodluck Jonathan government today denied reports in Nigerian and the foreign media it is in the process of recruiting an international public relations firm to launder its image.

In a statement by spokesman Reuben Abati, the government described the suggestion that the Federal Government intends to spend a staggering sum of $800 Million on what it called a “phantom public relations effort” to improve its image following the mass abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Borno State, as 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 malicious,” the statement said, adding that the government’s topmost priority for now is national security and the effort to ensure the safe return of the girls.

“We therefore condemn the attempt by purveyors of the bogus reports to incite the Nigerian public against the Federal Government through the circulation of falsehoods,” Abati said