Buhari denies barring AIT, blames overzealous aides

Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari, has instructed all his staff, including the personnel attached directly to him, to steer clear of all dealings with the media, and leave all media affairs to his official media team.

In a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, April 29, by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Buhari aligned himself with the pronouncement of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC which had earlier expressed disagreement with the temporary barring of the African Independent Television (AIT) from covering his activities.

“I would like everyone to henceforth stay within his/her defined area of responsibility,” Mr. Buhari said.

The president-elect added that his media team should be left to continue to deal with their media colleagues in the best possible way.

According to the statement, Mr. Buhari was neither consulted nor informed about the AIT barring, and only became aware of the matter after the public uproar it generated.

“The time of CHANGE has come,” he said, “and we must avoid making the same mistakes that the outgoing government made.”