I can’t stop Buhari from seeking re-election –Obasanjo

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
has denied an online report quoting him as
saying that he had warned President
Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election
in 2019.
The report, which was credited to him
through his former Chief Press Secretary,
Alex Nwokedi, in an on-line publication,
Post Nigeria, dated September 3, 2016,
claiming that Obasanjo had warned
President Muhammadu Buhari against
seeking re-election in 2019.
But Obasanjo has described the report as
“completely false and destructive by those
behind it.”
The former President, in a statement
issued by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi,
in Abeokuta on Sunday, said there has been
no communication between him and
Nwokedi in the last three years, and
wondered why any news would be
attributed to him, as published by the on-
line publication.
The statement read in part, “My belief is
that democracy allows for anybody
including President Buhari for that matter to
contest any election and it is the
prerogative rights of Nigerians to vote or
not to vote for them.
“I have not communicated with Alex in the
last three years, so how could a story be
credited to me when I did not authorise
such or communicated with him in the last
three years?”
Obasanjo said he could not even stop any
of his children not to seek elective post,
because that was part of the freedom of
democracy.
It read further, “I condemn in the highest
manner the story and those behind it. And
for those behind it, they are simply enemies
of democracy and freedom of expression.”
Obasanjo said that he was still committed
to the peace and progress of the country’s
democratic development.
He assured Nigerians that with patience,
the current democratic experience would
bring relief to the masses.