{"id":60363,"date":"2017-12-03T06:15:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T05:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=60363"},"modified":"2017-12-03T06:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T05:15:20","slug":"atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Muhammadu Buhari was banned from entering the United States<br \/>\nbecause Americans had reservations about his religious views, former Vice<br \/>\nPresident Atiku Abubakar said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Critics have long accused Mr. Buhari of holding religious views<br \/>\nantithetical to modern democratic principles, a charge the president has<br \/>\nrepeatedly rejected.<\/p>\n<p>In 2001, Mr. Buhari drew nationwide backlash when he was quoted as<br \/>\ndeclaring support for the Islamic doctrine of Shari\u2019a and as calling on<br \/>\nMuslims to only vote for their fellow Muslims during elections. The<br \/>\npresident challenged the report saying he was quoted out of context.<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0 has also repeatedly denied being an extremist, saying he tolerates<br \/>\nother religions as much as he does his Muslim faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor about 15 years, Buhari could not enter America on account of<br \/>\nreligious considerations,\u201d Mr. Abubakar said in an interview with Dele<br \/>\nMomodu which was published in The Boss Newspaper Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Momodu had asked Mr. Abubakar why he had not been able to visit the<br \/>\nUnited States for many years, amid speculations that he is wanted in that<br \/>\ncountry for a slew of sharp practices.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Abubakar, who is expected to run for president in 2019, said the U.S.<br \/>\nauthorities have nothing against him. He said he was able to visit Europe<br \/>\nregularly without being arrested for onward extradition to the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>The former vice president said if Nigerians elect him president, he would<br \/>\nbe allowed into the United States just like Mr. Buhari and Indian Prime<br \/>\nMinister Narendra Modi, both of whom are now being accorded red carpet<br \/>\ntreatments in the U.S. after becoming leaders of their respective<br \/>\ncountries.<br \/>\nMr. Abubakar was named in at least one fraudulent deal in the United<br \/>\nStates, which involved contract award in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>An American congressman Williams Jefferson was jailed in 2009 after being<br \/>\nconvicted by the FBI in relation to that case. A $100,000 cash which<br \/>\nfederal agents found in Mr. Jefferson\u2019s apartment during a raid was said<br \/>\nto have been from Mr. Abubakar.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Jefferson acted as a middleman in the deal, which saw him use his<br \/>\npolitical connection to top Nigerian officials to get the broadband<br \/>\ncontract for iGate, a company linked to his immediate family members.<br \/>\n<span class=\"im\"><br \/>\nMr. Abubakar, vice-president from 1999-2007, dumped the ruling All<br \/>\n<\/span>Progressives Congress last week Friday, citing failure by the Buhari<br \/>\n<span class=\"im\">administration to improve the quality of life in the country and neglect<br \/>\nof the youth in federal cabinet appointment.<\/p>\n<p><\/span>His political allies have indicated that Mr. Atiku was on his way to the<\/p>\n<div class=\"yj6qo ajU\">\n<div id=\":vd\" class=\"ajR\" tabindex=\"0\" data-tooltip=\"Hide expanded content\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ajT\" src=\"https:\/\/ssl.gstatic.com\/ui\/v1\/icons\/mail\/images\/cleardot.gif\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"adL\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"HOEnZb adL\">\n<div class=\"adm\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"im\">opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which has opened its doors to him.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Muhammadu Buhari was banned from entering the United States because Americans had reservations about his religious views, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said Friday. Critics have long accused Mr.&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Muhammadu Buhari was banned from entering the United States because Americans had reservations about his religious views, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said Friday. Critics have long accused Mr.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"410\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\"},\"wordCount\":436,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Exclusive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\",\"name\":\"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg\",\"width\":728,\"height\":410},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News","og_description":"President Muhammadu Buhari was banned from entering the United States because Americans had reservations about his religious views, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said Friday. Critics have long accused Mr.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":728,"height":410,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism","datePublished":"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/"},"wordCount":436,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg","articleSection":["Exclusive"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/","name":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg","datePublished":"2017-12-03T05:15:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Atiku-Abubakar.jpg","width":728,"height":410},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/atiku-says-u-s-banned-buhari-15yrs-religious-extremism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Atiku Says U.S Banned Buhari for 15yrs For Religious Extremism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}