Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has finally opened up on why president Muhammadu Bahari was denied entering the united State of America for almost fifteen years in a roll.
Atiku during an interview with the Boss Newspaper disclosed that Buhari’s alleged call for the total implementation of Islamic law in Nigeria in 2001 made the US government refuse him entrance into the United States of America for 15 years.
Atiku who is yet to be allowed into America after applying for visa said the American embassy did not categorically deny him visa but rather, that his application is going through administrative process.
The former vice president of the federal republic of Nigeria who during the interview said he is not running away from America hinted that it is the sole prerogative of America to determine who they want in their country or not.
Atiku while feeding questions during the interview said “this is not peculiar to me. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was also unable to enter America for years, but now Modi is being treated to red carpet treatment in America. I fly to different parts of the world, including Europe, if America wanted me, it would be so easy for them to reach out to their allies.”
Meanwhile the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has described Atiku’s claim that Buhari was denied entrance to America between 2001 through 2015 as fictive concoction.
Mr. Adesina in a statement released to journalists at the federal capital territory yesterday said the claim made by the former vice president only existed in the realm of his imagination, as Buhari was never stopped from entering America.
The presidential spokesman who in the statement said it was mind-boggling that a person of Atiku’s calibre who should know the truth was spreading the lies hinted that if Atiku had issues to settle with American authorities, he should do so, rather than clutch at a straw.
The presidential aide in the statement said“Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, claims in an interview published Saturday that for about 15 years, Buhari could not enter America on account of religious considerations. This fictive concoction being passed off as truth is mind-boggling, coming from a former Number Two Man of Nigeria, who should know the truth. At no time was President Buhari, as a private person, ever forbidden from entering any country in the world. Rather, the rest of the world has always held Muhammadu Buhari as a man of sterling qualities, strong on integrity, transparency and accountability.
The same testimony is still borne of the Nigerian President by many world leaders today. It is curious that former vice president Abubakar had been asked why he had not visited America for over a decade, something that had been a stubborn fact dogging his footsteps. Instead of answering directly, he begged the question, saying Buhari also had been disallowed from entering the same country for 15 years before becoming President.
We hereby make it resoundingly clear that what the former vice president said only exists in the realm of his imagination. If he has issues to settle with American authorities, he should do so, rather than clutch at a straw.”
