Nigeria’s Senate President Bukola Saraki has disassociated his office from rumours circulating on social media that a bloc of northern politicians are pressurizing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to resign his position and handover to Senator Saraki.
In an e-mailed statement on Wednesday, January 25, 2017 to The Trent, signed by a media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Dr. Saraki said that the presidency has dismissed the speculations concerning President Muhammadu Buhari’s health and that the rumours, are therefore, “baseless, empty, and unintelligent”.
“My attention has been drawn to a speculation on some online media about supposed meeting of some Governors who held Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to ransom and sought for Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki to take over the Presidency,” the senate president said.
“My first initial reaction was to ignore this empty rumour but after being inundated with calls from across the country and abroad, it became necessary for me to make clarifications from our own end.
“It is a good thing that the presidency had dismissed the speculation and showed that there is no substance to it. However, i feel it should be known that those behind this baseless, empty and unintelligent mischief are those who do not love this country.
“Such suggestions as contained in the speculation can only bring ill-will, disunity and crisis to the country and i therefore advise the sponsors to desist immediately. More importantly, these trouble makers should refrain from linking Senator Saraki’s name to their evil plot,” he ended.
Rumours about the health status of the president continue to swirl on cyber-space after a fake news website reported that Buhari had passed on.
The Nigerian presidency has debunked the rumour and said that the retired military general, 74, is “alive and well”.
“He is alive and well! President Buhari is not magical. He cannot be holidaying in the UK and be in Germany, dead or alive at the same time,” Garba Shehu, one of Buhari’s spokespersons, said in a short post on his Facebook page.
The president left the country last week on a 10-day leave and is expected back home on February 2, 2017. While making the official announcement, presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina had assured that there is nothing to worry about the president’s routine medical checkup while on his vacation.
The president himself also made it clear that there is nothing wrong with going on vacation, just before stepping into the presidential jet.
The rumours won’t go away. Wednesday morning, news began to circulate online that the present was on life-support at King’s College Hospital. According to the blogger who reported the story, his source is an inside source familiar with the situation.
