• Agenda for tenure extension began September 21, Falana insists
The presidency has for the umpteenth time debunked insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari was nursing a third term in office at the expiration of his current tenure in 2023.
Nigeria’s first citizens are constitutionally allowed two terms of four years each.
But, for some strange reasons, speculations have been rife in social and mainstream media suggesting a subliminal decision by the president to extend his stay in office.
Specifically, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), and others recently accused Buhari and his team of allegedly working to seek a third term in office.
However, reacting to the development late Monday night, the presidency in a statement signed by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said: “There are no circumstances – nor set of circumstances – under which President Buhari may seek to amend the constitution regarding the two-term limit on holding office as president.
“The popularly acclaimed human rights lawyer and formerly unsuccessful opposition candidate for governor of Ekiti State, Femi Falana, has boarded the free publicity train full of those seeking personal media attention in claiming the president is planning a third term in office.
“To repeat: All and every claim that is made that suggest President Muhammadu Buhari will stand for a third term in office is false.”
He added: “The presidency wishes to correct internet-based gossip and uninformed media commentary regarding presidential term limits, given credence by so-called support groups, staging street demonstrations asking President Muhammadu Buhari to do a third term.
“President Buhari intends to serve his full second elected term in office, ending 2023 – and then there shall be a general election in which he will not be a candidate.
“There is not even the faintest possibility that this will change.”
Nevertheless, Falana insisted that the agenda for tenure extension began on September 21, 2019 under the auspices of “Movement For the Approval Of Buhari Third Term”.
He therefore urged Nigerians not to dismiss demonstrations seeking a third term for the president.
The senior lawyer’s statement emerged few hours after the presidential denial.
But he maintained that there was a hidden plot referencing actions of the group.
Falana claimed that while the campaign lasted, the “demonstrators were not harassed by the police or the State Security Service (SSS), neither did the presidency deem it fit to disown nor dissociate itself from the campaign.”
He said curiously after the earlier rebuttal, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Charles Enya, filed suit no. FHC/AI/CS/90/19 at the Federal High Court in Abakiliki praying for the amendment of sections 137(1) (b) and 182 (1) (b) of the constitution to allow for a third term for the president and state governors.
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