Atiku Speaks On Buhari’s ‘Surgery, Clone, Jubril’ Saga

The presidential campaign organisation of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has revealed what allegedly brought about President Muhammadu Buhari’s rumours of death and the recent stories that he had been replaced by a clone.

Recall that the rumour was started by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu, who had sometime last year claimed that the real President Buhari was ‘‘dead’’ and had been replaced by one Jubril Aminu Al-Sudani.

Nigerians had since then continued to circulate the rumour on social media, prompting the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to address the story last week.

Mohammed had said, “It is idiotic to say the President is cloned. I don’t see any serious government responding to that. So, the same Jubril that was cloned from Sudan or Chad is in Chad now? Isn’t that stupid?”

President Buhari had also dismissed the rumours in Poland on Sunday, saying “I can assure you all that this is the real me. Later this month I will celebrate my 76th birthday. And I’m still going strong!”

But reacting to the matter on Kakaaki Breakfast Show on AIT, the spokesperson of the Atiku campaign, Mr Segun Showunmi, blamed the rumour on ‘‘absence of information’’ from the Presidency during the times President Buhari was sick and had to be flown out of the country to receive treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Showunmi said, “The rumours about him (Buhari) being cloned; about somebody replacing him can only arise because of the absence of information.

“The more fundamental issue goes back to the issues of transparency and information to country men.

“If our President goes into hospital for a surgery or treatment, it is the right thing for Nigerians to know what is wrong with our president. How long is he expected to be away?

“Nigerians were kept out of the loop (by the presidency). It was the same thing that happened to us with President Yar’Adua. He came back to the same situation.

“Nigerians reserve the right to know the status of our president even of our presidential candidate. We saw it in the US. Mrs Clinton had an issue, she had to come out clean. Trump had to come up with his letter showing what his doctor said about his health.

“Now, we have a situation where we don’t know what was the issue? Who treated him? How much did it cost us? What was he doing in the hospital? Who paid for it? None of those information is available.

“It is a national security matter that our president was away for 100 days and we don’t have information. I think it is something that maybe the National Assembly needs to legislate about since the President has refused to use their discretion.”