The Presidency has spurned report suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari and members of the Aso Rock cabal were angling for the removal Festus Keyamo as spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who refuted the report, described same as fake news.
“The news that President Muhammadu Buhari has called for the removal of Festus Keyamo, SAN as a spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council is fake news,” Shehu wrote on his verified social media handles.
Also, Keyamo, who is the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said the repork was the handiwork of the opposition who think by planting stories they can destabilise the ranks of the governing party and the campaign council.
An online paper (not LEADERSHIP online) had quoted a presidency source as saying Buhari and members of the cabal accused Keyamo of always de-marketing the current administration despite being a serving minister.
It cited the latest interview on Channels Television in which Keyamo had said Nigerians were hungry and can’t wait to have a new leader who would satisfy their hunger.
The report further claimed the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, also insisted on Keyamo’s removal following the latest interview on Channels Television.
“Buhari has asked for the removal of Festus Keyamo as the party’s campaign spokesperson. The President accused him of always de-marketing his regime, describing the government in which he is a minister as a failed regime. He has been described as a loose cannon who is daily demarketing his regime as a failed regime. The cabal members are not happy,” the report quoted the source as stating.
But refuting the said report, Keyamo who took to his Twitter handle described it as the height of the panic mode members of the opposition had found themselves.
The minister twitted: “Very funny fake news. When people feel uncomfortable with your uncompromising defence of your mandate, they promote such fake news to achieve a purpose.
“The opposition think they can plant stories to destabilize our ranks. This is the height of panic mode they find themselves.”
On areas that Keyamo had been allegedly demarketing the Buhari administration, the online report had quoted Keyamo as responding to a question on the APC’s campaign issues for the 2023 elections thus: “Nigerians are hungry, they want to see how that hunger will be addressed, not how their Christian faith or Muslim faith will be addressed.
“They want to see our policies on agriculture and what Asiwaju has done before as governor of Lagos state, how he improved Lagos and how he will bring that kind of dexterity to Nigeria as a whole. That is what they want to see. How do we want to run the country? What do we want to tell Nigerians?”
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