According to an exclusive report by Premium Times President Goodluck Jonathan has telephoned former President Olusegun Obasanjo to deny responsibility for promoting a controversial member of his Peoples Democratic Party, Buruji Kashamu, as an influential party leader in the south-west geo-political zone, a development that has infuriated Mr. Obasanjo, sources close to the former president said Saturday.
Mr. Obasanjo was travelling in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, at the time of the conversation with Mr. Jonathan, those familiar with the matter said.
Usually reliable presidency sources said Mr. Jonathan hurriedly called Mr. Obasanjo on Thursday shortly after he received the former president’s latest letter informing him and the PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, that he was suspending participation in party activities for as long as the ruling party continued to treat Mr. Kashamu, believed to be a fugitive, with reverence.
Premium Times sources said during the telephone exchanges, Mr. Jonathan appealed to Mr. Obasanjo to reconsider his decision to suspend himself from the party, saying he would personally prevail on Mr. Tukur to stop fraternizing with Mr. Kashamu and imposing him on the South-West PDP as a rallying point.
The president, according to Premium Times sources, told Mr. Obasanjo that he had never met Mr. Kashamu and had never instructed anyone to accord the controversial Ogun politician a special or preferential treatment in the party.
Meanwhile in a statement on Saturday, Mr. Kashamu denied being the leadrer of the party in the Southwest, saying he was just one of the party's foot soldiers in the zone. He dismissed Mr. Obasanjo’s letter as a “cocktail of lies” and a “campaign of calumny” inspired by the former president’s loss of political relevance in the Southwest. He also denied being wanted in the US.
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