President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare.
Bakare arrived at the President’s office inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja at about 2.30pm.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, was also sighted at the Presidential Villa on Friday.
Bakare left the premises alone at about 4pm. He told State House correspondents that he did not meet Buhari alongside Adeosun.
He explained that 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.
He said, “Honourable Minister Kemi Adeosun and I arrived at the Villa at different times. We met at the corridor. 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 (sic).
“This is the truth. 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.”
Bakare was Buhari’s running mate when the President contested the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change.
He has however been criticising the present administration lately over its poor handling of the security challenges in some parts of the country.
Adeosun has been under the spotlight because of a report that her National Youth Service Corps’ exemption certificate was forged.
Many individuals and groups have been calling for her sacking and prosecution just as the NYSC said it was investigating the matter.
The Presidency has yet to speak on the matter since the report was published last week.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had on Wednesday told State House correspondents that it was wrong to say the government had not spoken on the matter.
He said since the NYSC, which was part of government had spoken, then the government had spoken on the matter.
The Presidency 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. Adesina explained that 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.
The presidential spokesman noted that Adeosun had seen the President no fewer than three times earlier in the week, and did not need to meet with him again on Friday.
The statement read, “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.
“The minister was at the Presidential Villa in connection with the Annual General Meeting and 25th Anniversary Celebration of African Export-Import Bank holding Saturday in Abuja, which would be attended by President Buhari.
“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.”
