SAN FRANCISCO, October 10, (THEWILL) –The Presidency said on Saturday that its attention has been drawn to what it described as a false and sensational story by a leading newspaper to the effect that a pillar of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is “under security watch over alleged plot against Buhari.”
A leading newspaper, The SUN, had published the story titled ‘Ministerial List: Tinubu, others under security watch’ in its Saturday edition where it said that security agencies have launched a surveillance ring around Tinubu and some members of the National Assembly over an alleged plot against President Muhammadu Buhari.
But dismissing the report in a statement signed by the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said: “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,” adding “The relationship between him and the President cannot be better than it is at the moment.”
The statement further said: “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 head way 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.”
