Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media & publicity, Garba Shehu some minutes ago reacted to allegations of plagiarism levelled against the President’s speech at the launch of the “change begins with me” campaign last week.
Some parts of the speech was earlier reported to be the plagiarized version of President Obama’s 2008 victory speech.
Mr Garba Shehu tweeted as follows on his twitter handle, @GarShehu
” The Presidency wishes to respond to a story on alleged plagiarism in a Presidential speech that has been trending for most of today. The Presidency observed similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 victory speech and what the President read in paragrapgh 9 of the sixteen paragraph while inaugurating the “Change Begins With Me”. They are too close to be passed as a coincidence.
8. The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident…
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) September 16, 2016
7. This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) September 16, 2016
6, Already, a Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) September 16, 2016
5. There was a mistake by an overzealous staff and we regret that this has happened.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) September 16, 2016
There was a mistake by an overzealous administration staff and we regret that this has happened. A deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraphs, even when a query for him was being typed. This serious oversight will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate punishment meted out.
The Presidency wishes to state that in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore its cherished value system.”
