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Monday, February 10, 2025

Presidential aide linked to smear campaign against Sanusi

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An aide to President Goodluck Jonathan is believed to be the brains behind a smear campaign linking the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),Mallam Lamido Sanusi, to the recent upsurge in violence by Boko Haram.

Sanusi was suspended by the president last month after exposing a multibillion-dollar hole in the oil accounts.

Mr Sanusi’s allies say he is the target of a campaign to tarnish his credibility as a whistleblower, the most outlandish claims being from a certain “Wendell Simlin”.

A group of Lagos cyber sleuths set out to track the identity of the mysterious Mr Simlin behind the slur and after a painstaking examination of the properties of the word document concluded that the smear campaign was the handiwork of the presidential aide.

Gbenga Sesan, a member of Paradigm Initiative, an internet advocacy group, said the mail came via the government internet service provider in Abuja.

Other metadata matched previous emails sent under the presidential aide’s name.

An internet search showed his photograph on his Facebook page and threads revealing a connection between the two going back to 2010.

“All of these things individually are maybe not enough to be conclusive, but when you combine the email header, the Facebook page, the threads and the word document properties it is very compelling,” said Feyi Fawehinmi, another member of the group investigating.

Neither the man nor Mr Simlin could be reached for comment and neither replied to emails.

A senior government official said: “If he did something, he is on his own.”

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