2015: Buhari denies health concerns, foreign trip

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Maj. General Muhammadu Buhari has denied media reports that he was terminally ill and was preparing to go abroad for medical attention. Buhari spoke to reporters at the Rivers State Governors' Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, on Sunday. Some Nigerian newspapers in their Sunday editions; reported that the former military ruler was terminally ill and has been flown out of the country for medical attention. He said the reports were orchestrated by desperate individuals seeking to use it to gain undue political advantage. The APC candidate also used the occasion to debunk allegations that his tenure at the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund was riddled with corruption. According to him, his tenure at the PTF was thoroughly investigated and the report presented to the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who recently confirmed it. Buhari said, '(a national daily) reported that I was to jet out for medical checkup yesterday but here I am. I was at Nasarawa and Benue states yesterday; tomorrow I am going to be in two states. 'The day after tomorrow, in two more states. I am doing two states per day. How they got the impression that I was sick I do not know. Although I got cold and that did not stop me from going through my schedule.' Commenting on medical documents purportedly confirming his alleged poor state of health, Buhari said, 'I don't know of this desperation. 'The issue we are telling Nigerians is that of corruption in this country for the last16 years the PDP has literally destroyed this country. 'This is the issue and what has my health got to do with that one, have I been sick on daily basis? And (that) document has been put on paper, on tweeter that I am sick and the ABU (Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital) said they are forged documents. This desperation is beyond my understanding.'

When pressed to make a categorical statement on his state of health, Buhari jokingly asked the reporter, 'how old are you, 50 years?; I am telling you if go to the field, you would not last the time I will last in the field.' On his stewardship of the PTF, he said, 'That one has been cleared. There is no fraud in PTF, there was an investigation and General Obasanjo has answered that question, he confirmed that there was an investigation and the report was brought to him and there was nothing on ground as far as my management and chairmanship of the PTF was concerned. 'So what else can I say? The person who did the investigation because he was the Head of State he cleared me so what else can I say?'