The Presidency has clarified what exactly happened on Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Ogoni, Rivers State.
President Muhammadu Buhari, it would be recalled, was slated to visit Ogoni for the taking off of a well publicized oil spillage clean up exercise. Unfortunately and barely hours to the event, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN was sent to represent him.
Which, of course, has been generating mixed reactions ever since.
But clarifying what happened exactly, The Presidency is insisting that President Buhari neither chickened out nor cancelled the trip. Rather he sent a representative – and his deputy for that matter.
President Buhari’s inability to make the trip has been attributed to all sorts. However, the ones that look plausible include likely ill health and security reasons, particularly the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers.
Interestingly, weeks before this, the President also couldn’t make another well publicized visit to Lagos State and again sent Osinbajo to stand in for him.