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May 29 is handover date, Federal Government insists

By Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja
22 April 2015   |   11:44 pm
FOLLOWING the uproar generated by media reports last week that President Goodluck Jonathan would handover the reins of government to the President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on May 28, the Federal Government yesterday said the May 29, 2015 handover date was sacrosanct.

FOLLOWING the uproar generated by media reports last week that President Goodluck Jonathan would handover the reins of government to the President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on May 28, the Federal Government yesterday said the May 29, 2015 handover date was sacrosanct.

It said the report that May 28 was the date was a misrepresentation of issues.

The clarification has put paid to the controversy generated since last week.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), whose presidential candidate won the March 28, 2015 presidential polls as well as the Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), had rejected the purported May 28 handover date, saying it was a bobby trap aimed at redrawing the political map that would put Buhari in a tight corner.

But the Information Minister, Patricia Akwashiki, while addressing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC), said that she was misquoted when she said that a final dinner would be held preparatory to the handover of power by Jonathan to Buhari.

Reminded of specific statements at her briefing which indicated a dinner would still be hosted by Jonathan for Buhari on May 29, she said it was never intended to be a handover ceremony as widely reported, although she suggested that President Jonathan may choose to honour President-elect Buhari with an award.

“However, all handover briefs being co-ordinated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) would be ready by May 28, 2015”, the minister explained.

She allayed the fears of Federal Government contractors who may ‎be worried about revocation of their contracts by the incoming government, as she pointed out that government is a continuous process and all viable contracts would be sustained.

She stressed that if there had been any slowing down of projects by contractors, it could only be a result of non-assent to the 2015 budget, and not because of fears of revocation.

On the sacking of Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, just a few weeks to the handover date, Akwashiki said it was the prerogative of the President to take such decision and he had done what he felt should be done.

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