President Muhammadu Buhari’s former running mate and Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly is fighting to clear his name from being smeared in the effort to cover up the certificate scandal rocking the APC government.
Pastor Tunde Bakare, now a critic of his former boss, visited Aso Rock on Friday at 2 pm, and had a closed-door meeting with Buhari.
Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun was also sighted in the villa about the same time though Bakare left earlier.
Many believed the visit was part of the damage control the southwest is doing to keep Adeosun who has been slammed with an allegation of forging her NYSC certificate.
But Bakare left the premises at about 4pm, and he told State House correspondents that he did not meet Buhari alongside Adeosun.
According to him, both of them only met at the Presidential Villa. He, however, did not disclose his mission to Aso Villa.
“Our meetings are not related. We met here,” Bakare simply said.
In a statement on Friday evening, Bakare also said that he and Adeosun did not meet with Buhari.
“She went on to see someone else in the Villa and I went into a closed-door meeting with PMB (Buhari) alone to thank him for sending a powerful delegation to my mother’s home-going celebration,’ he said.
“The impression being created is as if she ran to me to speak to the president on her behalf. This impression is erroneous and false. I will appreciate that my side of the story is also published.”
The presidency would later on Friday said there was no truth in some insinuations that Bakare and Adeosun met with President Buhari together on Friday.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, gave the clarification in a statement made available to journalists.
He said Adeosun was at the Presidential Villa in connection with the Annual General Meeting and 25th anniversary of African Export-Import Bank when she met Bakare, who was on a scheduled visit.
“Stories making the rounds that Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly and Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, met together with President Muhammadu Buhari at State House, Abuja, Friday are far from the truth,” said Adesina.
“She ran into Pastor Bakare, who was on a scheduled visit to see the President, and they exchanged pleasantries. The cleric particularly thanked the minister for finding time to attend his mother’s funeral, which took place in Abeokuta, Ogun State, penultimate weekend.
“Mrs. Adeosun had seen President Buhari not fewer than three times earlier in the week, and did not need to meet with him again on Friday. “This statement is to put events in proper perspective, and dispel all conjectures and fictive reporting.”