Osinbajo off to London to meet Buhari

AILING President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to a meeting with him in the United Kingdom, where he is presently on medical vacation over undisclosed illness.

Osinbajo jetted out of Abuja soon after presiding over the Quarterly Presidential Business Forum, held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday morning.

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, had initially denied the trip when he realised that State House correspondents had knowledge of it, saying that the acting president would only be travelling to Lagos.

But he later confirmed in a tweet on his twitter handle, @akandeoj that Osinbajo had, indeed, left for London on the president’s summons without providing details.

However, he said Osinbajo would return to Abuja immediately thereafter, without also giving specific date.

“AgP Osinbajo meeting with President Buhari in London today, and returning to Abuja immediately afterwards,” Akande tweeted.

It is expected that he would return to Abuja in time to preside over today’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

Osinbajo’s trip to see Buhari came barely 24 hours after the wife of the president, Aisha, indicated on a Facebook post that her husband would soon get rid of “jackals and hyenas” surrounding him.

Aisha too is currently in London to attend to her husband.

The president returned to United Kingdom on May 7 on medical vacation, after an earlier trip, where he spent 50 days to take care of his health.

The Presidency had indicated that there was no definite time for the return of the president, adding that it would be determined by his doctors.

In Buhari’s absence, Osinbajo had been acting with full executive powers, though it was being speculated in many quarters that he had running battle with a certain “cabal” in the Villa.