A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has provided reasons he would not be reacting to the statement credited to a former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to run in the 2019 presidential election.
The former military Head of State had yesterday asked Nigerians to vote President Muhammadu Buhari out of office next year. He, however, enjoined Nigerians to cooperate with Buhari until his tenure ends.
In the lengthy statement, IBB listed the rate of killing and blood-letting in the country by the Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents in different parts among his reasons for making the call.
He had said, “I get perplexed by their gory themes. From Southern Kaduna to Taraba state, from Benue state to Rivers, from Edo state to Zamfara, it has been a theatre of blood with cake of crimson.
“In Dansadau in Zamfara state recently, North-West of Nigeria, over 200 souls were wasted for no justifiable reason. The pogrom in Benue state has left me wondering if truly this is the same country some of us fought to keep together.
“I am alarmed by the amount of blood-letting across the land. Nigeria is now being described as a land where blood flows like river, where tears have refused to dry up. Almost on a daily basis, we are both mourning and grieving, and often times left helpless by the sophistication of crimes.
“The Boko Haram challenge has remained unabated even though there has been commendable effort by government to maximally downgrade them.”
However, another statement followed few hours, claiming that the former Head of State never made such statement.
The second statement had insisted that the spokesperson to IBB, Kassim Afegbua released the statement on his own.
But asked to react on IBB’s call for President Buhari not to run in the election, Atiku’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, said,” There are controversies surrounding the statement.
“Which one do we react to? A first statement came and another one followed immediately, countering it. It shows there is confusion.
“We’ll wait until everything falls in place then we can react accordingly.”
