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Last Updated: Saturday, December 4th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page No apologies for not attending Northern Governors’ Forum - Obasanjo chesa chesa Abuja President Olusegun     Obasanjo Friday, scolded Jigawa State governor, Saminu Turaki, over his uncomplimentary remarks over the president’s refusal to attend the just concluded Northern Peace Conference in Kaduna organised by the Northern Governors Forum (NGF). In his capacity as the chairman of NGF, Turaki had requested the president’s presence at the meeting but Obasanjo not only refused but also politely advised the governor against such meetings that tended to create disunity along the North/South divide. The governor, however, was quoted in a daily newspaper accusing Obasanjo of trying to sabotage the conference by preventing the vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, and federal ministers from attending. Turaki further accused the president of craftily assigning Atiku to the HIV/AIDS rally in Abuja on the same day of the peace conference in a bid to ensure the absence of the vice-president in Kaduna, and still went ahead to join Atiku at the rally. The president swiftly dismissed Turaki’s allegations as “false, misguided and unfortunate political sophistry”, and maintained his stand against such a sectional gathering that could elicit equal response from the southern part of the country. A statement from the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mrs Remi Oyo, noted that Turaki was well aware of Obasanjo’s formal reply to the invitation in which he did not mince words regarding his “misgivings about the propriety and possible consequence of the congregation.” All the same, the president did not stop Atiku or any minister from attending the Kaduna event, and has no apologies for placing national unity above sectional interests, the statement added. It further explained that, “the facts of the matter are that the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) requested the president’s attendance at the event and was advised by his office to invite the vice-president because the president was not expected back from his official visit to Port Harcourt until after the event on Wednesday, December 1, 2004.     Copyright� 2004. All Rights Reserved. Independent Newspapers Limited Block5, Plot 7D, Wempco Road, Ogba, P.M.B. 21777, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. www.independentng.com e-mail: [email protected] Designed By Powered By DNet.

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