ABUJA – Kassim Afegbua, the spokesman of General Ibrahim Babangida, has insisted that the former military president approved the statement he issued, calling on Nigerians to vote out president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Afegbua in a telephone conversation with Daily Trust maintained that IBB has not denied the statement.
“The statement is in order. IBB did not hold any press conference in Minna. It was overzealous people that issued that statement of his denial. I wouldn’t issue any statement without his approval. Go ahead with the statement. I have spoken with him and he said he has not recanted the statement,” he said.
Babangida in a press statement released on Sunday by Afegbua, urged Buhari to sacrifice his personal ambition for national interest, while calling on Nigerians to vote out Buhari in 2019.
However, hours later another statement was circulated by press release distribution agency, PRNigeria, claiming that IBB has disowned the earlier statement issued by his media aide.
“Let me categorically state that as former President and Statesman, I have unfettered channel of communication with the highest authorities without sensational public correspondence, therefore those views expressed over there are personal views of the writer,” IBB was quoted in the statement.
This is just as the party commended the former military President for admonishing the APC’s attempt to use its phony restructuring agenda as a decoy for wooing voters ahead of 2019 election.
The party said General Babangida’s position on the need for a dynamic, nationalistic and development-driven leadership is a direct reflection of the feeling and aspirations of Nigerians and completely captures the direction of the repositioned PDP for a better Nigeria.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Sunday said the fact that General Babangida’s declaration on President Buhari is coming on the heels of similar declaration by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has further vindicated PDP’s position on the misrule of the Buhari administration and the APC.
The PDP further described as an understatement, General Babangida’s reflection that the Buhari administration and its APC has polluted the nation’s “leadership actuality”, adding that it is not unmindful of the yearnings of Nigerians to use the platform of the repositioned PDP to propagate a new coalition that would return the much desired new atmosphere in the polity by producing the president that will acceptable to the majority of Nigerians.
“It is now obvious to all that the time has come for all Nigerians to jettison all personal interests and divisive tendencies and rally forces under a truly national platform as now embodied in the PDP to rescue our dear nation from total collapse.
“In line with the new consensus for the election of a truly Nigerian President in 2019, the repositioned PDP is completely open as the epicenter of the much desired new broad-based political engagement of all Nigerians in their aspirations irrespective of creed, tribe or class.
“The repositioned PDP presents that credible platform, re-engineered with best democratic standards for unhindered accommodation of all interests from all parts of the country in our collective search for a new beginning.
“We therefore urge all Nigerians, particularly our leaders across board, to join forces with the PDP to once again return the nation to its pride of place as a thriving economy and a truly democratic nation come 2019,” the party said.