The presidency has washed its hand off the hint that fearless critic of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was deliberately excluded from the seven governors delegation to London on Wednesday to see recovering Buhari.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina in an answer to the question during the meeting with State House Correspondents alongside his colleagues, Shehu Garba and Laolu Akande, said the selection of members of the delegation was done by the Governors’ Forum.
“The selection was not done by the government. It was done by the Governors’ Forum and you can see that Gov. Yari, who is chairman of that forum, heads the delegation.
“So, that question should then go to the forum,’’ he added.
As Chairman of the Governors Forum of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Fayose had been calling on the government to create a bipartisan delegation for fairness and the journalists naturally asked the question because the current delegation include two governors from the PDP, namely, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom state and his Ebonyi counterpart, David Umahi.
According to Adesina, the president, who is recuperating very fast, preferred receiving delegations rather than addressing the nation through broadcast.
Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, told State House correspondents that the team comprising Governors of Zamfara, Ebonyi, Kano, Borno, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Oyo would be depart the country on Tuesday and visit the President on Wednesday morning.
Shehu briefed the correspondents alongside the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina and Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the President (Office of the Vice-President).
“The delegation is being led by the governor of Zamfara, who is the chairman of the Governors’ Forum and in that delegation there will be the governors of Ebonyi, Kano, Borno, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Oyo states.
“They will leave tonight and make an early morning arrival in the UK,’’ he said.
The visit is coming on the heels of Sunday’s visit to President Buhari by a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC), made up of party Chairman Odigie Oyegun, some national leadership of the party and two of its governors—Nasir El-Rufai and Rochas Okorocha.
