ADO EKITI, Federal Republic of Nigeria. February 21, 2015 — Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti State Governor, has alleged that the All Progressives Congress [APC] presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari is at a hospital located at Cavendish Street, Cavendish Square, W2 London West End, London, United Kingdom, for medical treatment.
In a message released by Lere Olayinka, special assistant to Ekiti state governor on public communications and new media, the governor argued that the claim by the APC that Mr Buhari would give a talk at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, is false, deceit aimed at deceiving and misleading Nigerians.
The governor said, “The event is listed on Royal Institute of International Affairs website www.chathamhouse.org/events hence “For the avoidance of doubt; the event’s keynote speakers are former Brazil Minister of Defence, Celsius Amorin; UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister of Defence Equipment Support and Technology, Celsius Amorin; Chief of the Defence Staff, UK Ministry of Defence, General Sir Nicholas Houghton; Chief Executive of BAE System, Ian King and Secretary General, Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Dr. Abdulatif Bin Rashid Al Zayani. Apart from the above listed five persons, 25 others are listed as speakers. So, in which Royal Institute of International Affairs’ event is Buhari participating as a speaker? This is not to mock Buhari or wish him dead. Rather, it is to expose the falsehood of the APC and desperation of its leaders, especially Senator Bola Tinubu to foist another Yar’Adua saga on Nigeria. If the APC people are saying otherwise, let them publish the picture of Buhari boarding the plane and granting interview to aviation correspondents at the Abuja Airport. While I am happy that the APC people that are packaging Buhari finally listened to my plea to allow him (Buhari) to seek medical treatment abroad, I must say that it is unpatriotic for the APC to have lied that Buhari travelled on a working visit. The party should be honest enough to tell Nigerians that Buhari is actually sick and lack capacity to rule Nigeria and that they are only packaging him, hoping that he will become incapacitated if he becomes president so that they can take over power by proxy.”
Unic Press UK has concluded its investigation on this matter. Our findings included: The conference scheduled to hold next week, from February 23, 2015, until February 24, 2015, at Chatham House is on ‘Security and Defence: Rising Powers and the Future of Defence Cooperation’. And Mr Buhari is not listed as a speaker at the conference. The list of people who will give a talk at the conference is accessible via http://www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/Defence2015 and it included: Celso Amorim former Minister of Defence, Brazil, Philip Dunne; a Parliamentarian Under Secretary of State and Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, General Sir Nicholas Houghton; Chief of the Defence Staff, UK Ministry of Defence, Ian King; Chief Executive, BAE Systems and Dr Abdullatif Bin Rashid Al Zayani; Secretary-General, Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Other speakers are Major General Obed Akwa; Commandant and Executive Director, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, James Appathurai; Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy; Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, NATO, David Chinn; Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, Professor Michael Cox; Associate Fellow, Americas Programme, Chatham House, Professor Audrey Cronin; Research Associate, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford (Department of Politics and International Relations), Dr Patrick Cronin; Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security, Dr Stuart Eves; a Lead Mission Concepts Engineer, Airbus Defence and Space, Air Vice-Marshal Sue Gray; Director, Combat Air, Defence Equipment and Support, Royal Air Force, UK, Deborah Haynes; Defence Editor, The Times and few other speakers. Mr Buhari is not on the list.
