No man can stop Buhari from ruling Nigeria for eight years – President’s CSO

Punch Newspaper State House Correspondent, Olalekan Adetayo, who was expelled from the villa has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief Security Officer, CSO, Bashir Abubakar, told him that no man can stop the President for ruling for eight years.

Adetayo was questioned by Abubakar over two reports he did on the President after which his accreditation tag was withdrawn and was escorted out of the Villa on the order of the CSO.

The writer has since been reinstated back to the Villa.

Narrating his experience in Tuesday in Abuja, Adetayo said the CSO had maintained that the stories had political motives which were about the next election year.

According to the reporter, alerted Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina of the CSO’s invitation.

He said, “Adesina advised that I honour the invitation and update him on developments.

“On getting to the CSO’s office, he was initially polite. He offered me a seat and asked how I was doing and I replied I was fine. He then first confronted me with my column, Aso Rock Lens, published on Saturday, April 22, 2017. He was angry with one of the items in the column titled ‘Seat of power’s event centers going into extinction’.

“In that piece, I highlighted some places in the Presidential Villa that hitherto had hosted high-profile events. I wrote that lately, events had not been held inside the halls. He said I was insinuating that government had collapsed in Nigeria.

“The CSO then brought out a copy of April 23, 2017, edition of SUNDAY PUNCH. He was visibly angry about the lead story titled ‘Fresh anxiety in Aso Rock over Buhari’s poor health’. That story was about how the President had not been seen in public in the last two weeks except when he made brief appearances at the mosque inside the Presidential Villa for Juma’at services last Friday and penultimate Friday. That story included the reaction of Adesina, who said the President was recuperating and that the prayer of all was that he recovered fully soon.

“He told me that the president was free to rule the country from wherever he liked. He said the stories were meant to portray the president as incapacitated and that it had to do with the politics of 2019… He said if God had sanctioned it, Buhari would rule the country for eight years, no man could stop him.”