TRACKING____A former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), has debunked speculations that he discreetly campaigned for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, during the 2015 election.
Dasuki, who served as NSA to President Goodluck Jonathan, said that between 2012 and 2015, he neither campaigned for the APC nor Buhari, in whatever shape or form before, during or after the 2015 presidential election.
In a statement he personally signed and released to the media yesterday, Dasuki said he was only involved in the unsuccessful attempt at forging an alliance between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), prior to the 2011 elections.
The erstwhile NSA said his association with Buhari and the legacy parties that formed the APC ended after the 2011 election was won and lost.
He expressed dismay at some recent media reports that presented some narratives that portrayed him as a fifth columnist in the then Jonathan administration.
“At first, I found the report too ridiculous to take serious. But on second thought, I felt it would be appropriate not only to debunk it, but to put the records straight, especially in view of politics of mischief and character assassination that are unfortunately the norms today,” he said.
Dasuki said that at the point of accepting the appointment to serve as NSA in 2012, he made it clear to President Jonathan that he had a relationship with (then) General Muhammadu Buhari of CPC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu of ACN and Chief Ogbonnaya Onu of ANPP, among other opposition elements, and that his appointment would not cause him to sever the relationship.
“I, however, assured President Jonathan that I would never betray him. As a man of honour, I kept to my words. I never worked at cross purposes with my boss, President Goodluck Jonathan as being recklessly insinuated by mischief makers on their blogs and social media,” he said.
The negative insinuations about Dasuki reports emanated from an interview of a former chieftain of the defunct CPC, Dr. Bashir Kurfi, which was published by a national newspaper (not New Telegraph) last month.
In the said interview, Kurfi, a university lecturer, was quoted to have said that Dasuki, among others, introduced General Buhari to the then Leader of ACN, Tinubu on the planned political alliance prior to the 2011 presidential election.
Kurfi explained that together with Dasuki, Adamu Adamu, current Minister of Education; Kabir Yusuf, the publisher of Daily Trust; and Wada Maida, former Chief Executive of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN); they visited the APC National Leader in Lagos, before the 2011 polls.
It could be recalled that Dasuki was arrested after President Jonathan lost the 2015 election and charged for alleged diversion of defence fund to fund the electioneering of the PDP.
The suit, which was filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), remains pending in court while Dasuki was released on bail after being detained for four years.
