A former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) has reacted to speculations that he secretly campaigned and supported President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign during the 2015 presidential poll.
Speculations making the rounds had claimed that Dasuki, while serving as NSA under former President Goodluck Jonathan, supported and campaigned for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari against Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 election.
But in a statement he personally signed, which was made available to newsmen on Sunday, Dasuki denied the allegation.
He said he was only part of those who attempted to forge an alliance between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) before the 2011 elections.
He said, “My involvement in that political process ended after the elections of 2011.”
On the claim he supported Buhari secretly he said, “At first, I found the report too ridiculous to take serious but on a 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 norm today.”
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The former NSA said he had at the point of being appointed as the NSA in 2012, told 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,” Dasuki said.
He reiterated that he never worked at cross purposes with “my boss, President Goodluck Jonathan as being recklessly insinuated by mischief-makers on their blogs and social media”.
Dasuki was arrested soon after President Buhari won the 2015 presidential election and was kept in prison till December 2019.
He was accused of misappropriating $2.1 billion given to him for arms deal by the Jonathan administration.
However, while Dasuki is still facing trial, a former PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, who got a share of the fund allegedly misappropriated by Dasuki, had since been sentenced and sent to jail.
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