I didn\’t endorse south-east for presidency – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed reports that he has endorsed the South-East for the presidency in 2023.

Reports in some section of the media had claimed that the ex-President publicly declared his support for the South-East to produce Nigeria’s next leader when a presidential aspirant, Mao Ohuabunwa, visited him at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Friday.

Obasanjo, who reacted to the development in a statement issued by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Saturday, accused Ohuabunwa of being the brain behind the report and warned the aspirant against putting words into his mouth.

The statement read: “If that was the way the presidential aspirant wanted to approach his ambition; such was a wrong way.

“He came here and the former President received him as a gentleman and in the spirit of his 85th birthday celebrations only for him to go and put words into his mouth. Baba is not that sort of man and if that is the way he wants to fulfil his ambition that is a wrong way.”