Osinbajo denies he asked for permission to leave APC over its Muslim-Muslim ticket

VICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has denied rumours that he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari asking for permission to resign from the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its decision to pick a Muslim-Muslim ticket for next year's elections.

Last  month, Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the APC presidential candidate after coasting home in a landslide victory following the party's convention in Abuja. Following his victory, he laboured to select a running mate after publicly declaring that he will pick a Christian from the northeast geo-political zone as his deputy but the process appeared fraught with difficulty.

On Sunday, however, after weeks of prevarication, Asiwaju Tinubu, himself a Muslim, ended up selecting a fellow Muslim in former Borno State governor Senator Kashim Shettima. His choice has polarised the country as the Christian faithful feel highly marginalised and already, several senior party members have left the APC over the matter.

With tension running high over the matter, rumours surfaced that Professor Osinbajo, an ordained clergyman, wanted to leave the APC over the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket. However, the vice president has vehemently denied this,. saying that a widely circulated memorandum suggesting he asked President Buhari for permission to leave APC was not from him.

Thus memorandum, dated June 24, with reference number SH/VP/605/2./0 and titled Permission to Resign from APC, listed family pressure and other reasons for the alleged decision. However, Professor Osinbajo's spokesman Laolu Akande, described the memorandum as fake, adding that for starters, the vice president would never author such a memo full of errors.

Mr Akande added: “Where do you people even get these things from? Who gave it to you? Anyways, for the avoidance of doubt, the memo is fake as the vice president didn’t write any such thing.”

During the APC primaries, Professor Osinbajo came third in the contest. Prior to the presidential primaries, the vice president was accused of betraying Asiwaju Tinubu, who is believed to be his political godfather by standing against him.