PDP asks Buhari to explain London stopover on way back from US insinuating it was a medical detour

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been asked by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to explain his stopover in London on his way back from the US amid claims that he did so to receive medical treatment for a nagging undisclosed illness.

Earlier this week, President Buhari was hosted by US president Donald trump, who invited him to the White House for a bilateral summit. On his way back to Nigeria, however, president Buhari made a detour to London in the UK, where it is believed he went to see his doctors and receive medical attention.

Since assuming office in 2015, President Buhari has spent two lengthy spells in London, during which he handed over power to his vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo. This time around though, no letter transferring power was sent to the National Assembly and the presidency has been mum about how long the president will spend in the UK.

PDP national publicity secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, said:“President Buhari had on Tuesday left the United States, where he had an embarrassing and fruitless outing and instead of returning to the country, detoured to the UK for another private visit without regard to full disclosure requirements of our constitution and laws. Nigerians are worried about the signal being sent out by this penchant for secret itinerary, particularly, given the poor reputation and governance transparency issues confronting our nation under the Buhari administration.

“The presidency must understand that President Buhari is not a private citizen and as long as his upkeep and itinerary is sourced from our hard-earned resources, there must be full disclosure, as citizens deserve to know the purpose of the visit and the cost to our nation.”

However, Mallam Garba Shehu, President Buhari's spokesman, explained that the president's technical crew decided to break the long US trip to refuel and do routine checks on his aircraft. He denied the insinuation that the stopover has anything to do with President Buhari's health.

Mallam Shehu said: “The big jet is under repair as it has been taken for major repairs, so the president is using a small plane and there is a limit to the distance the small plane can cover. So, the technical stopover I talked about is that the journey from US to Abuja is broken into two.

 “This is very normal and there is nothing unusual about it. In any case, they are already on their way back home."

Meanwhile, the presidency has berated the press for alleged misrepresentation of the issues raised during the encounter between President Buhari President Trump. On Monday, President Trump read what could be described as a riot act to the Nigerian government, saying the continued killing of Christians in the country was unacceptable to the American government.

Mallam Shehu accused the media of leaving out Muslims in their reportage of the one-on-one encounter between the two leaders. According to Mallam Shehu, President Trump mentioned Muslim lives as well.