Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the late arrival of his invitation was reason he did not grace the occasion of the public presentation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s authorised biography, ‘Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’ on Monday.
He spoke through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, stressing that he only received the invitation on Monday October 3, after the event had started. The invitation was dated September 30, 2016.
The statement said: “For inexplicable reason, the former Vice President only received his invitation today (Monday) after the event had started.
“It is on record that the invitation for the Turakin Adamawa was delivered to the Atiku Centre on October 1, 40 hours before the event of today, and only after the former Vice President had travelled to Gombe to honour the invitation for the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the creation of creation of the State.
“The former Vice-President returned to Abuja on Sunday night, October 2.
“The invitation letter signed September 30, 2016, the last working day of the week was handed over to Atiku Abubakar today (Monday), after the programme had commenced.
“As a former Vice-President well-schooled in the demands of protocol, it would have been inappropriate of the Turakin Adamawa to storm into the event while Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-chief was already seated with other dignitaries including visiting Heads of Government to the occasion.”
There had been rumour in the political space that all is not well between the Buhari and Atiku, though they both belong to the same party.
