Presidency denies placing ex-Governor Bola Tinubu under security watch

The Nigerian presidency has released a statement, denying an alleged plot to harass former Governor Bola Tinubu.

The Sun newspaper had reported Saturday that Mr. Tinubu was under watch over an alleged plot against President Muhammadu Buhari for purportedly ignoring his nominees for ministerial positions.

But a statement by Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, said the report was false and baseless.

The statement said, “The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to a false and sensational story by a leading newspaper to the effect that a pillar of the governing party, the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is “under security watch over alleged plot against Buhari.”

“Nigerians are hereby advised to ignore this story because it is false and baseless.

We wish to confirm without any equivocation that the Asiwaju is not of any particular interest to any arm of the security services. The relationship between him and the President can not be better than it is at the moment.

“According to the perverted logic of the newspaper, the respected leader of the APC is into a plot against the leader of the country. The presidency is unaware of any such plots against the President.

“I got on the phone a short while ago with General Babagana Munguno, (Rtd), the National Security Adviser and the Director General of the SSS, Lawal Daura who both dismissed the published reports as acts of pure mischief. They are not aware of the Asiwaju being on any kind of watch.

“It would appear that a competition is on between two or three newspaper establishments on how best to breach the excellent relationship between the pillars of our party and government.

“So far, they have not made a headway and there is no indication that they will succeed in the future. It suffices to say that such reports, written without fairness and balance can only take away from whatever is left of the credibility of these newspapers. The general public is hereby advised to ignore them on these reports.”