The presidency has distanced President Muhammadu Buhari from a letter in circulation, which alleged that the president ‘authorised’ Governor Nasir el-Rufai to “deal” with traitors and disloyal members of APC, especially his political rival, Shehu Sani.
Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, October 7, 2018.
According to the presidential aide, the president is not aware of any such letter, “let alone authorising anyone to deal with any party member”.
The statement read: “The presidency wishes to distance President Muhammadu Buhari from a letter currently in circulation, which alleges that the President had authorised a governor or anyone else for that matter to deal with traitors and disloyal members of APC, especially Senator Shehu Sani.
“We wish to confirm that the president is not aware of any such letter, let alone authorising anyone to deal with any party member.
“Given President Buhari’s record, it is inconceivable that he would usurp the role of the party leaders and instruct anyone to punish a party member.
“In the light of above, we would like to appeal to the general public, especially members of the press, to ignore false or unauthorised information intended to attribute to the president any action which is not in line with his character.’’
It would be recalled that Mr El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State had last week visited the Presidential villa twice over political developments in his state. Mr El-Rufai is a key ally of Mr Buhari.
El-Rufai, who vehemently opposed the decision of the APC National Working Committee, NWC, to clear the senator as the sole candidate in the race for APC-Kaduna Central, said the fate of the senator “lies in the hands of the party delegates in the state”.
The national body of the APC had on Sunday reiterated that Mr Sani remained its only senatorial candidate from Kaduna Central.
Yekini Nabena, the acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, confirmed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja.
