Dogara refutes reports of 2023 presidential ambition

The ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Sunday, August 23, slammed reports of his intention to vie for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket alongside the party’s national leader, Bola Tinubu, in 2023.

1st News had reported that Dogara left the APC ahead of the 2019 presidential election; but returned to the party on July 24.

In a statement titled: “titled ‘Rt. Hon. Dogara is concerned about tackling the challenges of our nationhood than 2023,” issued by his media aide, Turaki Hassan; the ex-deputy speaker alleged that the reports were sponsored by the Bauchi State government.

The statement reads: “It has come to our notice that stories and images are being circulated on social media; to the effect that His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara is running for the office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; with the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for President in 2023.

“Our initial decision was to ignore them since they are utterly baseless but it appears that the promoters of this fallacy are unrelenting in spreading the falsehood and have now succeeded in making it sound believable to the extent that even some conventional and ‘credible’ media platforms are beginning to take it up.

“In order to stop the further spread of this deliberate mischief, whose objective is yet to be ascertained, the public is hereby advised to disregard and totally discountenance the purported story and pictures for what they are – the handiwork of mischief-makers.

“These stories and pictures, we understand, are being sponsored by officials of the Bauchi State government in their desperate bid to lend credence to the infantile delusions of their principal, captured in his ludicrous postulations that Rt. Hon. Dogara left the PDP just because he was ‘deceived’ by the APC with the promise of a position come 2023.”