Osinbajo allays fears of APC presidential hopefuls revealing he has no ambitions for 2023

VICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has told all those attacking his personality in the hope that it will derail his presidential ambitions has declared that he has no intention of running for the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.

Over the last week, Professor Osinbajo has come under attack from several quarters with numerous claims that he was a beneficiary of looted funds. In the ongoing investigation of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, Professor Osinbajo's name has come up repeatedly.

Last week, Mr Magu was arrested by men of the Department of State Security in Abuja and has since been held for questioning by a presidential panel set up to investigate him. President Muhammadu Buhari has since suspended him from office and over the last few days, all sorts of stories have been circulating about impropriety associated with Mr Magu.

Over the last week, One  Jackson Ude upped the ante by publishing stories in online publications PointBlank News and Newsreel.com.ng claiming that Mr Magu handed Professor Osinbajo N4bn ($10.3m) from the money he acquired. While responding to questions put before him by the presidential investigating panel, Mr Magu said, however, that he does not know where how vice president became associated with the matter.

It is believed that the attacks on Professor Osinbajo are the handiwork of his political opponents trying to discredit him ahead of 2023. With there being a lot of jostling ahead of the next elections, it is believed that a lot of those aspiring for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are out to discredit Professor Osinbajo who they see as the frontrunner.

However, Laolu Akande, Professor Osinbajo's spokesman, said his principal's major focus was to support President Muhammadu Buhari until their tenure elapses. While answering questions on an Instagram Live chat with the publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, Mr Akande said the vice president has no plans for 2023.

Mr Akande added: “I’m his spokesperson and all I know that he wants to do is to do this job that he has been given very well and he doesn’t have any other plans right now about any such thing. I can tell you that clearly.

“He has said to me several times, see Laolu, this is not a monarchy, we are going to be here for four or at best eight years, let’s just focus and do the work so that when we are gone, people will say we did this and that. So, he is entirely consumed with the job.

“I’m his spokesperson and we have not talked about what he is going to do in 2023. What’s the point?”