Saraki denies saying he stepped down for Buhari- 2015 presidential election

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki has denied saying he stepped down for President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 presidential election,

The clarification was made by Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, on Sunday in a telephone interview.
According to Olaniyonu, what the Senate President said during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Saturday was that he dropped his presidential ambition, once President Buhari announced his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election, adding that Saraki only stated during the interview that he stepped down from running for the President so as to be part of the solution to the nation’s social and economic problems which Buhari had prepared himself very well to tackle.

Saraki had, during the interview, traced the genesis of his current travails in the All Progressives Congress, APC, to his ardent support for President Buhari in the run off to the party’s presidential primaries.
He also alleged that those who were blackmailing him before the President were actually his friends and associates, who were annoyed that he chose to support the Presidential ambition of Buhari, instead of supporting them.
Saraki said: “Talking about relationship with Mr. President, I want to reassure the public that some of us….. If you look at the time of the APC and the period of the campaign, I was the first person that stepped down his presidential ambition once President Buhari announced that he was going to contest for the election.
“Since then, and throughout the period of the primary election, I had worked tirelessly…even some of my own friends or those that are associates who did not support me in the Senate. My offence was because I did not support them for their Presidential ambition and I supported President Buhari.
“That is why I find this world very funny. I now find out that they are the ones now that claim that they love President Buhari more than me. It is a very, very funny world. These are people that we were begging.
“My offence was to tell them that, ‘Look, we are young; let us allow President Buhari. This is the man for today; let us allow him to contest. That is my offence. They are now the people that are now saying that Saraki does not like the President; they are the ones that like him.
“But time will tell, the truth will always prevail and that will be soon.”