Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu says popular Catholic priest, Father Mbaka, withdrew his support for President Buhari’s government because the president refused to flout laid-down rules to award him contracts for his past support.

According to Shehu in a statement Friday evening, Father Mbaka requested to have an audience with President Buhari for which he was obliged. When he met the president in the company of three contractors, Shehu relayed, he asked to be given contracts for his support for Buhari in 2015 and 2019, but the president referred him to the appropriate authorities. This, perhaps, infuriated him, hence the U-Turn.

Read the statement below;

“An outsider distilling the avalanche of verbiage, will be surprised that after supporting the President two times to win the Presidency, Father Mbaka has made a complete U-Turn, preposterously asking President Buhari to resign or be impeached.

Here is the point of departure: Father Mbaka asked for a meeting and to the shock of Presidential Aides, he came accompanied by three contractors. The President graciously allowed them in, and to everyone’s surprise, Father Mbaka asked for contracts as compensation for his support.

Anyone familiar with President Buhari knows that he doesn’t break the laid down rules in dealing with contracts or any other government business for that matter. He requested the appropriate authorities to deal with the matter in accordance with laid down rules.

Inside the Villa, discretion prevailed, that if those pictures and requests were made public, the followers will turn against the religious leader. None of it was released. Now, this is what is eating Father Mbaka.”