Ministers and other officials in the immediate past administration are not to be “subjected to any undue harassment and intimidation at the airports or at other points of entry and exit,” President Muhammadu Buhari warned yesterday.
He declared that his government has “not banned anyone from travelling.”
In a statement in Abuja against the backdrop of cases of ‘V.I.P stoppages’ at airports in the country, President Buhari asked “all agencies under the government to run their affairs in full compliance with extant rules, regulations and the constitution of the country.”
“Unless otherwise directed by the courts, no law-abiding citizens should be barred from travelling abroad,” he said in the statement signed by the head of his media team, Mallam Garba Shehu.
“We must treat fellow citizens with courtesy and respect. Officials at the borders and other points of entry and exit should conduct their affairs in strict compliance with due process. No one has my permission to bar anyone from travelling abroad.”
Many former governors, ex-ministers and others have already left the country, some shortly before Friday’s swearing in of the new President.
In this category are the immediate past Petroleum Affairs Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and former Governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Usman Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi) and Bala Ngilari (Adamawa).
President Buhari in his inauguration speech on Friday had advised those in fear of his coming after them to stop nursing such thought.
“A few people have privately voiced fears that on coming back to office I shall go after them. These fears are groundless. There will be no paying off old scores. The past is prologue,” he stated.
He said there is need for Nigerians to be united now more than the case in the past because of challenges at hand.
