Chidi Samuel || Hours after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said that President Muhammadu Buhari was barred from entering the United States for 15 years on religious considerations, the Presidency on Saturday faulted such claims, calling it ‘fictive concoction’.
The Presidency’s reaction was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
“This fictive concoction being passed off as truth is mind-boggling, coming from a former Number Two man of Nigeria, who should know the truth.
“At no time was President Buhari, as a private person, ever forbidden from entering any country in the world,” the statement said.
According to Adesina, contrary to the claims, his boss remained a man of integrity and would never engage in the discrimination of religion in Nigeria.
“The rest of the world has always held Muhammadu Buhari as a man of sterling qualities, strong on integrity, transparency, and accountability.
“The same testimony is still borne of the Nigerian President by many world leaders today,” the statement added.
The Presidency wondered why Atiku could not respond to the question as to why he had not visited America for over a decade.
“We hereby make it resoundingly clear that what the former Vice President said only exists in the realm of his imagination. If he has issues to settle with American authorities, he should do so, rather than clutch at a straw,” the statement added.
Atiku’s attack on President Buhari is coming less than two weeks after he decamped from the ruling All Progressive Congress on the ground that the party had failed Nigerians.