Former President, Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated President Bola Tinubu for emerging as the new Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
The spokesman of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Garba Shehu made this known in a statement.
This comes as he debunked a story by a national daily that the former President fled the country and now in exile.
Reacting to a newspaper report that Buhari has gone on exile after handing over to President Tinubu, Shehu said there was no veracity in the report and advised media offices to always confirm their reports.
He said that Buhari is with his family in his Daura hometown of Katsina state.
According to him, “For misleading the otherwise credible newspaper to falsely report on their front page that former President Muhammadu Buhari has “fled” and on “exile” when he is currently at home with family in Daura, Katsina State, BusinessDay newspaper should sack their reporter who didn’t do the job of checking his facts.
“BusinessDay should think 10 times before running any information from the particular reporter and verify it before believing him. Every platform has tools to verify any information and we don’t expect anything less from BusinessDay.
“If they had browsed through different sources, they will have seen reports of the former President having come back home and enjoying the company of his family.
“A single fake news in a newspaper has the capability to destroy a reputation built on years of hard work.”
On the emergence of Tinubu as the new ECOWAS Chairman, Shehu in the statement said:
“Former President Muhammadu Buhari congratulates President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his emergence as the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
“The former President said he was elated to hear the news that President Tinubu was elected chairman at the 63rd Ordinary Session of the regional bloc held on Sunday in Bissau, capital of Guinea-Bissau.
“The former Nigerian leader said “West Africans have entrusted our new leader with an enormous responsibility, and it will be our task as citizens to support him to not let them down.
“I pray the Almighty will make his tenure as Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government see to the restoration of ECOWAS as the bastion of democracy, good governance and a leader in fighting terrorism and climate change on the continent.”
