By Adesanya Akanbi, Abeokuta
ABUJA – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken a swipe at those who may think he has gone back on his decision to quit the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying anybody who thinks otherwise doesn’t know the sex of his mother.
In a statement issued on Saturday in Abeokuta on his behalf by Kehinde Akinyemi, his media aide, the former president said he was done with both the PDP and partisan politics.
The statement was in reaction to media reports that he attended a meeting of the PDP convention committee at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on Friday. Obasanjo confirmed his presence at Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, where meeting of some PDP executives took place ahead of the party’s national convention, he however, clarified that he went to attend an event hosted by the Commodities Stakeholders Association.
Recall that Obasanjo, a former Chairman of Board of Trustees of PDP, on February 16, 2015 tore his PDP membership card at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta at the peak of misunderstanding that broke out between him and then President Goodluck Jonathan.
Obasanjo stated that “anybody who believes the story, doesn’t know sex of his mother as going back to PDP will amount to feeding mice to a dead cat.”
But, while blaming the report on what he called irresponsible Nigerian journalism, the former president clarified that he only attended event tagged, “Zero Hunger Nigeria” at the centre.
The former president, who said in a full text released in Abeokuta on Saturday and tagged: “Photonews story of Obasanjo ‘SPOTTED’ at PDP event: Believe it and believe that your mother is not a woman – Obasanjo”, affirmed that he had not only quit People’s Democratic Party, but partisan politics generally.
The full text reads thus, “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 him, “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 gasping for breath?”
“To clear the minds of doubting Thomases 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 is explained below.
“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 programme ended and immediately he and his entourage headed back to Lagos. He was barely hours in Lagos when he started receiving calls from both far and near, wanting to find out about his presence at a political party programme in Abuja.
“The photo news in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political party event is therefore mischievous. As a responsible journalist, he 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 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.” (Sundiata Post)
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