Femi Adesina, a spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, has denied that his principal ever promised to sell off some presidential jets to cut cost of governance, contrary to a statement released to that effect in 2016, a year after Mr Buhari assumed office.
Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, had in his Easter homily, raised issues on some promises made by the Buhari regime, adding that Nigerians will need to work hard to restore the country to what it was before Mr Buhari’s presidency.
“To our President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, As you prepare to return to Daura or Kaduna, I do not know if you feel fulfilled or that you met the tall dreams and goals you set for yourself such as: ending banditry, defeating corruption, bringing back our girls, belonging to everybody and belonging to nobody, selling off our presidential fleet and travelling with us, etc,” Mr Kukah said.
Reacting to Mr Kukah’s criticism in an interview with Channels TV on Monday, Mr Adesina denied that Mr Buhari ever promised to sell off presidential fleet as recalled by Mr Kukah in his Easter homily.
“He (Mr Kukah) talked about selling off presidential jets, was that ever promised? In 2015 there were rash promises made then that the candidate didn’t know about. So how can you start claiming that he promised that? Can he prove anywhere that the President said that?” Mr Adesina said.
Contrary to Mr Adesina’s denial, his colleague Garba Shehu, another spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2016, once admitted that the President promised to sell off some presidential jets to cut down the cost of governance.
“The newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorised by the presidency,” Mr Shehu said in a statement.
To portray Mr Buhari as fulfilling some of his campaign promises, Mr Shehu said “this is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste.
“When he campaigned to be President, the then APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari, if you recall, promised to look at the presidential air fleet with a view to cutting down on waste.”
