TheCable

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says his principal knows nothing about the expulsion of Lekan Adetayo, state house correspondent of PUNCH, from the presidential villa.

On Monday, Adetayo was expelled from the villa by Bashir Abubakar, Buhari’s chief security officer (CSO), for writing “uncomplimentary reports.”

Although, the reporter has been recalled back to the villa, his newspaper said he would not resume until the presidency tenders an apology.

Reacting to a report on the Aso villa incident published by another newspaper, Shehu said Buhari should not be blamed for the expulsion of the reporter from the villa.

He said it was wrong and improper to use the isolated incident to judge the character of the president.

Shehu said the newspaper acted like it has been waiting to attack the president and portray the incident as evidence of his alleged dislike of the media.

He said the newspaper’s headline was “misleading and mischievous” and it aimed to portray the president in bad light.

“Despite the president dissociating himself from the unfortunate incident and the affected journalist being recalled, the newspaper still chose to go for the president’s jugular, holding him personally responsible for an action he knew nothing about,” Shehu said.

While reiterating the president’s respect for media freedom, he said since Buhari was sworn into office, he has not oppressed any media house or journalist on account of writing unfavourable reports about him or his government.