Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo has denied an online report quoting him as
saying that he had warned President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek
re-election in 2019.
President Buhari and Obasanjo
In an official statement issued by Kehinde Akinyemi, a former
president's media aide, in Abeokuta on Sunday, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
has denied an online report quoting him as saying that he had warned
President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.
According to a report by Punch Metro,
a report which was credited to the former president through his former
Chief Press Secretary, Alex Nwokedi, in an online publication dated
September 3, 2016, claimed that Obasanjo had warned President Muhammadu
Buhari against seeking re-election in 2019.
Former Obasanjo has now described the report as 'completely false and destructive by those behind it',
adding that there has been no communication between him and Nwokedi in
the last three years, and wondered why any news would be attributed to
him, as published by the online publication.
“My belief is that democracy allows for anybody including
President Buhari for that matter to contest any election and it is the
prerogative rights of Nigerians to vote or not to vote for them.
“I have not communicated with Alex in the last three years, so
how could a story be credited to me when I did not authorise such or
communicated with him in the last three years?,” the statement read in part.
He said he could not even stop any of his children not to seek elective post, because that was part of the freedom of democracy.
“I condemn in the highest manner the story and those behind it.
And for those behind it, they are simply enemies of democracy and
freedom of expression,” the statement read further.
Obasanjo said that he was still committed to the peace and
progress of the country’s democratic development and assured Nigerians
that with patience, the current democratic experience would bring relief
to the masses.
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