President Buhari Was Quoted Out Of Context In Imo – Presidency

The Presidency on Sunday noted that the statement of President Muhammadu Buhari about the Governor of Imo, Hope Uzodinma at the meeting with South-East leaders was quoted out of context.

President Buhari was quoted to have said, “I’ll be careful with your future invitations” at end of his speech at the occasion.

The spokesman to the president, Femi Adesina, condemned people to the report which he described as fake news.

Adesina stated that the President was amazed at the number of South-East leaders that travelled to Imo State for the meeting with him in Owerri.

He added that the President thought he was in the state to commission projects, however, the state Governor invited him to a meeting with south-east leaders.

The statement read in part: “We have observed that President Buhari’s concluding remarks at the meeting with South-East Leaders during his one day visit to Imo State is being deliberately contorted and twisted out of context.”

“The purveyors of disinformation want Nigerians to believe that the President bluntly told Governor Uzodinma, ‘I’ll be careful with your future invitations.”

“They have adduced different meanings to the phrase, contrary to the context wherein the President spoke during his successful dialogue with leaders of thought from Igbo land.”

“When he arrived at the banquet hall of Imo State Government House for his last assignment in Owerri, the President was welcomed by over 50 leaders from the South East who had waited patiently for him for a Town Hall engagement, after commissioning strategic projects in the State.

“The President began his extempore speech by acknowledging the calibre of personalities present at the dialogue including the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor; former Chief of General Staff, retired Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe; and former Senate President Ken Nnamani.”

“Former Military Governor in old Imo State; Sen. Ike Nwachukwu; the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe; Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi; Deputy Governors of Abia, Anambra and the SSG of Enugu State, who represented the Governor.

“The Anglican Archbishop of Owerri Province, Most Rev. David Onouha, and his brother Bishop of Enugu, Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo, just to mention but a few.”

The presidential aide quoted the president’s words at the event as: “I am overwhelmed by this reception, overwhelmed in the sense that when I accepted the invitation by the Imo State Governor, who wants to justify investments the government has done to the people of Imo State,

“I thought I would see the bridges, the roads and a few renovations.

“He didn’t tell me he was going to get the whole Igbo leadership here.

“So in the future when he invites me, I’ll know what to do. But I think he has done what the military didn’t like. He has achieved surprise. He has surprised me beyond description.”

Adesina further stated that Buhari in the event referred to his earlier remarks on the “surprise” action pulled by the governor.

On a lighter note, Adesina said the president quipped: “Governor of Imo State, I cannot thank you enough, but I will be careful with your future invitations.”