BUHARI’S LONDON STOPOVER: End official secrecy, tell the truth, PDP tells Presidency

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Presidency to end its official secrecy and come clear on the reasons for President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged ‘technical stopover’ in London.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had in a text message to newsmen on Thursday afternoon claimed that Buhari made a “technical stopover” in the United Kingdom after his visit to the President of the United States of America (USA) at the instance of his technical crew who decided to break the long US trip to refuel and do routine checks on the jet being used.

But in its response, the opposition party noted in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, that President Buhari had left the United States 48 hours earlier and embarked on an unofficial visit to United Kingdom for undisclosed reasons without transmitting a letter to the National Assembly.

“This is impunity and another constitutional breach. President Buhari had on Tuesday left the United States, where he had an embarrassing and fruitless outing and instead of returning to the country, detoured to the UK for another private visit without regard to full disclosure requirements of our constitution and laws.

“Indeed, Nigerians are worried about the signal being sent out by this penchant for secret itinerary, particularly, given the poor reputation and governance transparency issues confronting our nation under the Buhari administration.

“The Presidency must understand that President Buhari is not a private citizen and as long as his upkeep and itinerary is sourced from our hard-earned resources, there must be full disclosure, as citizens deserve to know the purpose of the visit and the cost to our nation,” the PDP said.

READ ALSO: 2019: How Arewa youths will decide between Buhari, Atiku, Tambuwal, others

According to PDP, President Buhari’s foreign trips, which come at great costs, have not brought any gains to our country.

“Instead, the President has continued to de-market our nation in the international arena. The just concluded the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, where he cast aspersion at our enterprising youths and failed to return with any dividend readily comes to mind.

“Furthermore, President Buhari’s admission at the Voice of America (VOA) that he was unable to reach any agreement with President Donald Trump on any matter of interest to Nigeria, during his US visit and that he has no future development agenda to validate his 2019 re-election bid, confirm our position that the Buhari administration has nothing to offer Nigerians,” PDP added.

 

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