Buhari Will Handover To Tinubu, Retire To Daura – Presidency Insists

President Muhammadu Buhari would handover on May 29 after the expiration of his tenure and retire home to Daura, Katsina State, the presidency has insisted.

A statement on Friday from the president’s Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu therefore denied reports that the position has changed, noting that arrangement for Buhari’s retirement was well in progress.

The presidency was reacting to reports in some sections of the media (not THE WHISTLER) that Buhari had told close associates that he “doesn’t see himself handing over to Tinubu.”

Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to have defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party in the election.

Both the PDP and the Labour Party are in court contesting the outcome. Three other parties have also filed their suits challenging the results at the tribunal.

There have been accusations of deliberate rigging of the election with protests being staged in Abuja.

Some of the protesters have also called for an interim national government and for Buhari not to hand over to Tinubu, with some news reports suggesting the president was thinking along that line.

Shehu however in the statement declared the purveyors of such reports as “losers” and denounced it “as outrageous and fake.”

The statement further condemned “the fake news brigade for attributing” the false quotes to “Buhari and circulating it.”

Noting that the transition was in progress, Shehu asked, “How can you vigorously campaign for somebody, vote for him and then say you won’t hand over to him? This beggars belief.”

He described as “pretty pathetic” the source of the news pointing out that the report is “politically partisan”.

He said those behind the reports “repeatedly sell lies in the hope that people believe them as truth.

“The government is already in transition phase. The Transition Committee, made up of representatives of the outgoing administration and the incoming one is meeting on an almost daily basis planning the handover to the Tinubu/Shettima administration. Thirteen committees as offshoots of the main committee, some, to arrange military drills and pulling out of President Buhari, are either all at work or soon to be.

“So far, everything is going very well and there is no indication of any hitches.

“As for the President, the Daura community has begun their preparations to receive their son back after the successful administration of the country for two terms of eight years.

“He, for his part, is eager to return home to enjoy his retirement,” Shehu said in a statement.