Presidency dismisses claims of Buhari’s hijack by cabal

Reacting to claims that President Muhammadu Buhari had been hijacked by a cabal and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo sidelined as a result of the undue influence, the presidency Sunday dismissed the claims.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.

Shehu said it was not correct that the vice president had been sidelined with the return of the President, saying he remained Buhari’s closest confidante.

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He said, “Quite to the contrary, the Vice President remains the confidante and the closest adviser to the President.

“He has attended all the President’s engagements all through the week with the exception of two: one, the VP was away to Taraba State and two, the Juma’at Muslim prayer because he is a Christian.

“It is difficult to understand what anyone wants to achieve peddling such falsehood that the President, himself a former military general and Head of State and Commander-In-Chief is subject to undue influence and manipulation. It is both ridiculous and inconceivable.

“As someone who works very closely with President Buhari, I can testify to how my years of experience as a newspaper editor are often put to the test by the sheer thoroughness with which the President edits every single document brought to his desk.

“Every memo, statement, speech, is subject to his intense scrutiny, right down to the placement of commas and full stops. Therefore, alleging that President Buhari signs memos brought to him by government officials or a so-called cabal without reading them, immediately casts doubts on the credibility of the ubiquitous unnamed sources that the reporters of these articles quote.”

 

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