Osinbajo’s spokesperson rejects ex-SGF Babachir Lawal’s claims about ex-VP

Laolu Akande, erstwhile spokesperson for former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has rejected allegations by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, about Mr Osinbajo’s relationship with former President Muhammadu Buhari and the composition of his (Osinbajo’s) office.

Mr Akande, who served as Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity from 2015 to 2023, said he was responding because he was part of the Office of the Vice President and witnessed several of the decisions Mr Lawal referred to.

Mr Osinbajo contested the APC presidential primary in June 2022 but lost to Mr Bola Tinubu, who eventually became the party’s presidential candidate.

Mr Lawal had alleged, among other things, that Mr Buhari considered Mr Osinbajo’s decision to seek the presidency in 2022 “immoral,” and that the former vice president had submitted a memo containing more than 20 names of proposed staff which was allegedly delayed by the president’s chief of staff.

Mr Akande rejected both claims.

In a statement titled, “A response to Babachir Lawal’s falsehoods against Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON,” Mr Akande described Mr Lawal’s claims as “a string of allegations”. He said the former SGF’s account contained fabrications that needed to be corrected.

“Ordinarily, such fabrications would not deserve a response. But I served as the vice president’s spokesperson. I was in the room where many of these decisions were taken,” he said.

Buhari supported Osinbajo’s 2022 ambition — Akande

According to Mr Akande, the claim that Mr Buhari considered Mr Osinbajo’s presidential ambition immoral was false.

He said the former president personally offered to support Mr Osinbajo’s political ambition on at least four occasions.

“President Buhari personally offered to support the vice president, telling him plainly: ‘If I don’t support you, who will I support?’” Mr Akande said.

He also recalled an incident during the 2022 APC presidential primary campaign when Mr Buhari praised Mr Osinbajo at a Federal Executive Council meeting for conducting what he described as a dignified and issues-based campaign.

Mr Akande said the president’s comments were made in the presence of members of the council.

“That is not a president who found Osinbajo’s ambition distasteful. That is a president who broached it, encouraged and applauded it,” he said.

Akande denies existence of 20-name memo

Mr Akande also rejected Mr Lawal’s account of a memo allegedly containing the names of more than 20 staff members proposed by Mr Osinbajo.

He described the claim that the memo was delayed by the Chief of Staff to the President and subsequently taken to Mr Buhari by Mr Lawal as “a complete fabrication”.

“There was no such memo,” he said.

Mr Akande also disputed the claim that Mr Buhari made an ethnic remark about the proposed staff, saying such conduct was inconsistent with the former president.

He explained that Mr Osinbajo had direct access to Mr Buhari and ordinarily took his memos directly to the president for approval.

According to him, once approved, the memos were passed to Mr Osinbajo’s Chief of Staff, Ade Ipaye, who communicated them to the relevant agencies for implementation.

He said the SGF’s office was not involved in that process except at the stage of issuing appointment letters to staff.

Mr Akande also challenged Mr Lawal’s claim that the alleged memo had been delayed for three months.

“I resumed in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015, alongside several other colleagues. So did many of those whose names he now invents. There was no three-month delay,” he said.

He said the process involved different batches of memos submitted by Mr Osinbajo at different times as the office was being established and government policies evolved.

He said no single list of staff appointments was based on ethnic or religious considerations.

‘Osinbajo’s office was pan-Nigerian’

Mr Akande further rejected Mr Lawal’s allegation that Mr Osinbajo staffed his office largely with members of his church.

He described the claim as false, saying the office’s composition showed otherwise.

“The Office was one of the most inclusive, pan-Nigerian offices in that government — North, South, East, West, Christian, and Muslim,” he said.

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He cited the appointment of Mr Ipaye, a Muslim lawyer, as deputy chief of staff to the vice president as evidence of the office’s religious diversity.

Mr Akande also said three of Mr Osinbajo’s four special advisers were Muslims, including Maryam Uwais, who served as special adviser on Social Investments, and Ahmad Zakari.

He argued that the staff composition contradicted the claim that Mr Osinbajo operated a narrow religious agenda.

Mr Akande said his response was intended to place the disputed claims on record, stressing that he had firsthand knowledge of the workings of the Vice-President’s office during the period under review.

“It is quite simply incredible that Mr Lawal would create such falsehood,” he said.