Former president Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday denied claims that he attended a function organised by his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party, in Abuja on Friday.
Obasanjo said that those spreading such lies through the social media were mischief-makers bent on getting him annoyed and embarrassed.
Pictures of Obasanjo purported to have been taken when the former president attended a PDP event at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja had on Friday gone viral on the various social media platforms.
But the former president in a statement by his Media Aide, Mr. Kehinde Akinyemi, stressed that Obasanjo had since last year quit partisan politics and would not rescind his decision.
According to the statement, anybody hoping to drag Obasanjo back to partisan politics would only be dissipating energy on a dead issue.
It further explained that the former president was only at the Yar’ Adua Centre for a different event, which had nothing to do with politics or any political party.
Quoting Obasanjo himself, the statement said, “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 grasping for breath?”
Giving further explanations on the event at the Yar’Adua Centre, the statement read, “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 a 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. A responsible journalist ought to have gone further to ascertain his actual destination among the number of halls at the centre and not taking a photograph of his alighting from his vehicle to read another meaning.
“It is shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken while the former president was on his way out of the centre at the end of the programme he had attended.
“This is height of irresponsible journalism and the former President is calling for its investigation and sanction imposed 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.”
