As the dust surrounding the health status of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari refuses to settle, more concerns have been raised following reports that the erstwhile Head of State has concluded plans to embark on a trip to the United States of America at the end of January.
According to a Vanguard report, Buhari has filed an online application for a US Visa to enable him travel on Monday, January 26, 2015, purportedly for medical reasons, thus giving credence to rumours that the rigors of the APC campaign had taken its toll on the 72-year old.
Reacting to the rumours, Buhari’s Campaign Director of Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu advised Nigerians not to be swayed by the reports, attributing the origin of the rumours to “desperate and unpopular candidates who were afraid of losing in a free and fair contest,” arguing that Buhari was heading to the US for “political and diplomatic consultations” and not for medical reasons.
Speaking via a statement, Shehu also dismissed the authenticity of a medical report from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, currently in circulation which shows that the former military leader was suffering from prostrate cancer.
The statement reads: “It (report of cancer) is untrue and condescending of its exponents. I have it on good authority that GMB has not visited the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital in the last five years. So, how can anyone say that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last October, barely three months ago?.“This is the highest point of political distraction, malice and mischief. The report was not only fake but unfounded. I have spoken to impeccable sources at ABUTH all of whom deny the report and also claimed that the letterhead used was not their regular one, and that Dr. Bala Mohammed that purportedly approved the false medical report is not on the personnel list of that department.”
Shehu also buttressed that ABUTH sources revealed to him that “medical report analysis only come from laboratory technologists and not medical doctors as handwritten in this particular case”
“The Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) has discredited the purported report said to have emanated from the hospital to the effect that General Muhammadu Buhari is stricken with cancer,” the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation retorted.
