The Presidency has denied media reports that President Muhammadu had ordered security agencies to keep special watch over one of the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, for plotting against the President.
Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the presidency did not know of such a plot and the top echelon of the security services have also denied investigating Tinubu.
In a statement he issued on Saturday, Shehu described the report as handiwork of mischief working to dent the excellent working relations among the party’s leaders, and urged the public to ignore such futile antics.
According to the statement: “The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to a false and sensational story by a leading newspaper to the effect that a pillar of the governing party, the Action Peoples Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is ‘under security watch over alleged plot against Buhari.’
“Nigerians are hereby advised to ignore this story because it is false and baseless.
“We wish to confirm without any equivocation that the Asiwaju is not of any particular interest to any arm of the security services. The relationship between him and the President can not be better than it is at the moment.
“According to the perverted logic of the newspaper, the respected leader of the APC is into a plot against the leader of the country. The presidency is unaware of any such plots against the President.
“I got on the phone a short while ago with General Babagana Munguno, (Rtd), the National Security Adviser and the Director General of the SSS, Lawal Daura who both dismissed the published reports as acts of pure mischief. They are not aware of the Asiwaju being on any kind of watch.
“It would appear that a competition is on between two or three newspaper establishments on how best to breach the excellent relationship between the pillars of our party and government.
“So far, they have not made a headway and there is no indication that they will succeed in the future.
“It suffices to say that such reports, written without fairness and balance can only take away from whatever is left of the credibility of these newspapers. The general public is hereby advised to ignore them on these reports.”?
