Why I didn’t hand over to Osinbajo when travelling in April — Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he decided not to hand over power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo when he travelled to the United Kingdom on a private visit from April 25 to May 5, 2019 because there was no constitutional requirement for him to do so.

The President further stated that the only time he needs to hand over to Osinbajo is when he is proceeding on leave or going to be out of the country for more than 21 days.

Buhari said this in a six-paragraph counter-affidavit deposed to on his behalf by one Mr. Friday Atu, a litigation officer in the Civil Litigation Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

A Lagos-based lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, had sued Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation over the President’s failure to hand over power to Osinbajo in April.

The case is before Justice A. O. Faji of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos and has been fixed for Monday, October 7, 2019 for hearing.

Buhari had been known to hand over power to his deputy anytime he was travelling out of the country for unofficial engagements.

For instance, when the President travelled to London on a working leave on August 3, 2018 and returned on the 18th, spending a total of 16 days, he handed over to Osinbajo.

It was while Osinbajo was acting President during the same period that he sacked the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, a move that was said to have been vehemently opposed by those close to the President.

Incidentally, since Daura’s sacking over a year ago, the President has not transferred power to Osinbajo again.

The President has in recent weeks curtailed the powers given to the Vice-President by first removing him as the head of the economic advisory team and asking him to seek special approvals before taking certain actions.

There have been reports that the cabal which controls the Presidency is opposed to Osinbajo’s purported 2023 presidential bid.

– Punch