Former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, has refuted a report that said he turned down a request by President Goodluck Jonathan’s to break the Ramadan fast with him.
In his reaction, IBB as popularly called, said that the President never made such request in the first place.
A national daily on Tuesday published a story that Babangida turned down a request from President Jonathan to break fast with him.
But the presidency quickly refuted the report, with a request that it must be retracted by the newspaper.
However, on Wednesday, the newspaper maintained that -the story was true, and would not withdraw it.
In a statement by his media office on Wednesday, Babangida said the story was “utterly false” as he has high respect and regard for the office and person of the president.
The statement reads; “The attention of General Ibrahim Babangida, GCFR, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has been drawn to a newspaper publication stating that the former President turned down a breakfast invitation from His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To state the obvious, the said report is UTTERLY FALSE.
“Former President, Ibrahim Babangida in his usual humility respects the person and office of the President of the country, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR.
“There was no time that the President requested for a breakfast meeting with General IBB, let alone turned down by the former President.
“In fact, former President IBB had visited President Goodluck Jonathan more than twice since his assumption of office, meetings which afforded the two leaders the opportunity to brainstorm on the challenges confronting the country.
“It is, therefore, very unfair to the persons of former President, General Ibrahim Babangida and President Goodluck Jonathan to be portrayed as if there was bad blood between them.
It concluded that “Having served this country before and knowing the enormity of the challenges of governance, General Ibrahim Babangida will be more than willing to have unconditional breakfast meeting or any other meeting for that matter with the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.”