By Henry Umoru

ABUJA— FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, denied being part of a conspiracy against President Muhammdau Buhari, saying the insinuation that he used the cover of a foreign medical trip to host an anti-Buhari parley was wrong.

Reacting to insinuations by what he called “political mischief makers and enemies of unity,” who alleged that he has been hosting political meetings at Burj Al-Arab, Dubai, the former vice president said contrary to the rumours being bandied around by political opponents, he was currently in Dubai with his family for physiotherapy on his injured knee.

In a statement by his media office in Abuja, yesterday, and signed by his Media Adviser, Mazi Paul Ibe, Atiku said he was embarrassed by the deliberate falsehoods being spread against him by political opponents who are bent on causing distraction for President Buhari at a time all energies should be channelled into helping the President actualise his change agenda.

Describing rumour mongers as “ill-motivated busybodies that don’t wish the country well,” the Turaki Adamawa explained that his medical treatment is his private affair, which should not be politicised by anybody to achieve sinister objectives.

Atiku, who noted that he was entitled to enjoy his private life, including the right to attend to his health without being harassed and lied against by political opponents, said: “Contrary to the insinuations by political opponents, the former vice president says the success of the Buhari administration has been his preoccupation, and that any true APC member should have the same zeal.”

According to him, rumour mongers that seek to cause distraction in Buhari’s government do not mean well for the APC administration, adding that  with the challenges of providing good governance for the country and creating job opportunities for Nigerians, including reducing the impact of poverty, President Buhari needs all the goodwill and support in this endeavour.

He said: “Whether at home or abroad, the Turaki is preoccupied with his unassailable support to President Buhari and his administration, especially in this critical time, as it works assiduously to turn the fortunes of our dear country around and make Nigeria work for the greater good of Nigerians.

“Rumour  mongers and mischief makers are toxic to the progress of the APC and the country at large, adding that the campaigns are gone, and therefore, all energies should be constructively devoted to the success of the Buhari administration.

“This is yet another plot of the enemies of our country and democracy to divide, divert attention and distract the APC in its avowed commitment to secure the country, provide jobs for the mass of unemployed youths, build needed critical infrastructure, enthrone a regime of probity and accountability and pull the country out of the economic woods it has been consigned to by locust years of mismanagement.”

-Vanguard