Nigeria
ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday, reacted angrily to media
reports suggesting that he attended an event convened by his former party, the
People’s Democratic Party in Abuja.
The
former President, who maintained that he was at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre
as guest of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the Senate Committee Chairman on
Agriculture, when some PDP leaders stormed the venue to greet him, declared
that the report was intended to embarrass him.
A
statement statement by his media office said: “The attention of the former
President, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been brought to the
photonews story, which has gone viral on the social media on Friday, August 5,
2016 of his purported being “spotted” at a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) event
at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja.
“While
ordinarily his first reaction to the news was that those behind it targeted to
get him annoyed and embarrassed him, his conclusion was that he has told the
world that he has quit partisan politics and that is final. Anybody hoping to
drag him back will fail like any man feeding mice to a dead cat.
”To
clear the minds of doubting Thomas’s and those behind the orchestrated news in
circulation and particularly those who had been calling to ascertain what
actually happened at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua centre. On the invitation of the
Commodities Association Stakeholders, His Excellency, was invited to the “Zero
Hunger Nigeria” event at the Centre.
“He
arrived at about 10.00am and immediately moved to the meeting. The meeting
commenced but few minutes into the session, his attention was drawn to the presence
of some people walking up to where he was seated.
“At
closer glance, he recognized them to be politicians and they exchanged
pleasantries, saying they came to greet him and they walked out again from the
meeting. The former President cracked joke with them calling them ‘invaders and
gate crashers’.
“The
photo news in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political
party event is therefore mischievous, as a responsible journalist ought to have
gone further to ascertain his actual destination in among the number of venues
at the centre and not taking photograph of his alighting from his vehicle to
read another meaning. Shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken
while on his way out of the Centre after the programme he had attended had
finished.
“This
is the height of irresponsible journalism, which the former President is
calling for its investigation and sanction on anybody involved in order to
serve as deterrent to others who may want to be used either by omission or commission
to misinform the public on such sensitive issue.”
Earlier
Premium Times had quoted the former president as saying, “Those who know me,
know that I have publicly announced my quitting partisan politics and those who
will believe the purported story will believe anybody who tells him that his or
her mother is not a woman.
“If I
quit a party when it was alive and seemingly united, how could I go back to a
now divided, factionalized party grasping for breath?”
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