Double speak? Buhari denies Garba Shehu

The president-elect Muhammadu Buhari, has denied that he instructed anyone to bar the AIT from covering his activities, and instructed all his staff, including the personnel attached directly to him, to steer clear of all dealings with the media, and leave all media affairs to his official media team.

Buhari in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, aligned himself with the pronouncement of his party, which had earlier expressed disagreement with the temporary barring of the AIT from covering his activities.

“I would like everyone to henceforth stay within his/her defined area of responsibility,” Buhari said.

According to the statement, Buhari was neither consulted nor informed about the AIT barring, and only became aware of the matter after the public uproar it generated.

“The time of CHANGE has come,” he said, “and we must avoid making the same mistakes that the outgoing government made.”

It would be recalled that the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Garba Shehu, in stating the ban on AIT had asked to be quoted that there were issues that needed to be sorted out before the station could be allowed to cover the president-elect’s activities.

He had said: “AIT has been asked to stay aside based on security and family concerns. In addition, Buhari has decided that they will have to resolve some issues relating to issues of standard and ethics.

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