A founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, on Thursday, dismissed the claim that President Bola Tinubu outsmarted former president Muhammadu Buhari to emerge president.

Okechukwu’s remark followed claims by former presidential Special Adviser on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, that Tinubu outsmarted Buhari to pick the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential ticket in 2022.

Ojudu said Buhari never supported his then Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and Tinubu during the APC presidential primary election.

Reacting, Okechukwu said Ojudu’s so called disclosure was less than factual and misinformation.

In a statement he signed, the former VON DG said the true position was that “Yes there was split opinion on whether to support Tinubu or not and Buhari sided with the camp led by then Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, quoting the Holy Quran that he cannot ditch the man who stood by him through thick and thin. Rather let the delegates elect whoever is their choice at Eagle Square.”

Okechukwu maintained that there was division in Buhari’s kitchen cabinet immediately after the screening Committee headed by “our former chairman of APC, His Excellency John Oyegun was submitted. The argument centred on whether some of the twenty-three presidential aspirants including Tinubu should be disqualified following a plethora of allegations flying around.”

He said: “The only truth in Ojudu’s statement is that Buhari didn’t mobilise for any of the twenty-three aspirants not even for Senator Ahmed Lawan.

“Truly if Buhari was in support of Lawan he could have disclosed this to the APC Governors Forum who prodded him serially to tell them who to vote for. It couldn’t have been the then-national chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu to inform only the National Working Committee. The Aso Villa is the arena for such an important message.”

Osinbajo: Tinubu didn’t outsmart Buhari to emerge president – Osita Okechukwu