Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has debunked a report that he is in support of the South East to produce the next president in the 2023 general elections.
He denied this in a statement issued by his spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi, and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
The ex-President was reacting to a report published by an online news platform (not Vantage News) which stated that he had backed an Igbo man to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, adding that the South East could develop the country if someone from there is elected.
The report said he made this statement while receiving a presidential aspirant and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mao Ohuabunwa, at his residence in Abeokuta on Thursday.
Obasanjo has however denied endorsing the South-East for the presidency or any aspirant for that matter ahead of the 2023 polls.
The former leader took it out on his visitor Ohuabunwa whom he accused of being the brain behind the report and misquoting him to favour his presidential ambition.
According to Obasanjo, the PDP chieftain came to visit him and he received him as a gentleman and in the spirit of his 85th birthday celebrations and not to endorse him.
Akinyemi’s statement in part:
“If that was the way the presidential aspirant wanted to approach his ambition, such was a wrong way.
“He came here and the former president received him as a gentleman and in the spirit of his 85th birthday celebrations only for him to go and put words into his mouth. Baba is not that sort of man and if that is the way he wants to fulfil his ambition, that is a wrong way.”
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