Former Head of State and chairman of the 2015 General elections Peace Committee, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar yesterday said he had not been intervening to stop the probe of any minister by the incoming government.
He spoke yesterday after a meeting at the Presidential Villa.
President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has declared his intention to investigate the activities of key ministries after his inauguration. Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, was reported to be lobbying the former Head of State to intervene on her behalf.
Yesterday at the Villa, Gen. Abubakar and the minister arrived few minutes apart at President Goodluck Jonathan’s office at the Villa.
Gen Abdulsalami told reporters who asked him whether he attended a meeting with the minister of petroleum as part of the alleged plan tom intervene on her behalf: “I think people are just trying to be mischievous, I have been meeting with a lot of people and a lot of ministers in the course of this transition. So there is nothing strange in me meeting with anybody.
“I wonder if you go through the records to see the number of meetings I have been engaged in, I don’t know why the last one will be a subject of media chat.
“This is not the first time I have been meeting with her and a number of ministers, so I don’t see what the whole hullabaloo is all about. People are just being mischievous.”
On why he visited the President, he said: “As the chairman of the peace committee, there is always interaction between the incoming administration and President Jonathan in order to ensure that the peace we have been able to get is sustained.”
Asked if serving as intermediary between Buhari and Jonathan was necessary, he said: “I’m not serving as an intermediary. I told you I’m coming here as the chairman of peace committee and naturally we have to interact, I go and see Gen. Buhari and I also see the President all in an effort to make sure than that this transition goes on smoothly and we maintain the peace.”
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