The mischievous lead report in the Peoples Daily newspaper today that President Goodluck Jonathan sought to visit former President Ibrahim Babangida in Minna to show him \u201cthe spirit of comradeship\u201d during Ramadan is completely untrue.<\/p>\n
Although President Jonathan participates in the Ramadan fast every year in solidarity with Nigerians of the Islamic faith, he has never as Vice President or President of the country visited the residence of any individual to break his fast.<\/p>\n
Rather, it has been the President\u2019s custom to regularly invite Moslems from all strata of society to break their fast with him at the Presidential Villa during the month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
In keeping with that established practice, President Jonathan has been busy\u00a0 hosting\u00a0 Moslems, most evenings of the current Ramadan season.<\/p>\n
As much as he respects and holds former President Babangida in high regard, President Jonathan has never indicated any interest in visiting him at Minna during the current Ramadan.<\/p>\n
Therefore, there could not have been any \u201cturning down\u201d of a visit by President Jonathan by the former president.<\/p>\n
We condemn the decision of the editors of the Peoples Daily to publish such arrant falsehood in spite of our vigorous rebuttal as a further manifestation of a continuing effort to sow the seeds of discord in the polity.<\/p>\n
Although the newspaper cites a phantom \u201creliable presidency source\u201d and \u201ca source close to the former president\u201d to buttress its fictitious report, the editors of Peoples Daily know fully well that they can never prove the veracity of the false claim that President Jonathan either offered to break fast with General Babangida in Minna or was turned down by the former president.<\/p>\n
We therefore demand a full retraction of the totally false report which demeans the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and an apology by the newspaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mischievous lead report in the Peoples Daily newspaper today that President Goodluck Jonathan sought to visit former President Ibrahim Babangida in Minna to show him \u201cthe spirit of comradeship\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n