By Dansu Peter
The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has debunked a media report purporting that he plots to replace Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the Vice President come 2019 election.
News Proof had earlier culled the report from The Daily Sun which said "2019: Buhari May Pick Tinubu As VP"
Tinubu, who debunked the report published in a national daily, spoke through his media office on Wednesday.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu The APC national leader, in the rebuttal, said rather, the report sought to harm the very good character of the vice president. He said if there was going to be any decision concerning the 2019 election, both the president and his vice would discuss with the party as a body.
Tinubu said the report equally aimed at discrediting the good work which the Buhari/Osinbajo administration is recording at virtually all facets of the economy and therefore, called on the general public to disregard the report which he described as reckless, entirely unwarranted and indefensible.
The statement reads thus:
“The attention of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Media Office has been drawn to the front page lead story of (a national daily) of yesterday, December 13, 2017, which sensationally and ridiculously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari may pick Asiwaju Tinubu as his running mate for the 2019 election.
This is a classic case of utterly and irredeemably fake news,” read a statement which Tunde Rahman, Tinubu’s spokesman, issued on his behalf.
“There is no empirical or logical basis for this mischievously speculative story. Is it even conceivable, as the story recklessly insinuates, that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would be considering returning to full church work rather than run with his boss, President Buhari for a second term if the latter so decides without as much as discussing such a sensitive issue with his party and with Asiwaju Tinubu?
“ In any case, is this story not entirely unwarranted and indefensible as the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket has an electoral mandate of four years out of which it has spent only over two years and a half years?
“This is clearly an attempt to distract the APC federal government from the yeoman’s job it has been doing in rescuing the country from the deep-rooted socio-economic, political, security and moral mess inherited from the PDP’s 16 years misrule of Nigeria, instigate crisis within the party, stoke dangerous embers of religious disaffection within the party and the country generally and stem the remarkable progress being made in the reinvention and revitalization of Nigeria.
“There is greater sanity, accountability and transparency in the management of the country’s finances. The Boko Haram insurgency has been substantially contained. We should not allow ourselves to be derailed from the job we are effectively undertaking in fulfilling our campaign promises anchored on the tripod of containing insecurity, taming the scourge of corruption and resuscitating the economy. “The Buhari and Osinbajo-led Federal Government is deftly steering the country out of an economic recession that was the result of the ineptness of the PDP years of the locusts.
“Asiwaju Tinubu will never support any attempt to distract Buhari and Osinbajo from the job they are passionately doing through the kind of false report. In particular, this story does great injustice to Vice President Osinbajo. Here is a man of the highest integrity, moral rectitude, amazing humility, high intellect and unimpeachable credibility.
“Here is a man of fierce loyalty and absolute trustworthiness who will never do anything in word, thought or deed to undermine his boss. His unquestionable dependability and indisputable fidelity to his oath of office was demonstrated beyond question by his honourable conduct during the President’s medical vacation.”
The people of the south-west have absolute confidence and are exceedingly proud of the excellent job Professor Osinbajo is doing as Vice President of Nigeria”.
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