Ignore Fake Buhari Ministerial Lists Circulating Online - Presidency

The special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital/New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi, urged Nigerians to disregard the purported list in a tweet via his official Twitter handle, @toluogunlesi. 

"Social Media people have started sharing Next Level portfolios, LOL. "Disregard any information that’s not officially announced from the Presidency. People are not appointed on WhatsApp or Facebook.

"If you’re bored and in need of entertainment, wait for BBN. Thanks," he tweeted. Meanwhile, President Buhari has continued to keep everyone wondering which minister will make it back into his cabinet and which will be dropped by the time he starts making appointments. 

When the president finally picks his ministers, he is expected to send the list to the Senate as 'executive communication'. According to a presidential source, President Buhari has continued to keep everybody guessing on the final list.

The source said: “The president has given nothing away basically. Up till now, we do not know if he would pick 36 ministers, as he did in 2015, or 42 by picking an additional minister per geo-political zone. "And nobody can say for sure that they know who is on the list and who is not. The president is keeping everything close to his chest.”

Meanwhile, our correspondent  previously reported that a group, Ibom Integrity and Servant Leadership Culture Initiative, reiterated its call that President Buhari should not appoint former Akwa Ibom state governor, Godswill Akpabio as a minister in his cabinet.

The group in a statement by its executive vice president, Dr Asuquo Edidem Etim, said it stands by its earlier petition to the president, stressing that its complaint echoes the inner thoughts of many members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom and the entire south-south states.

The group had earlier petitioned the president on the need not to appoint Akpabio into the federal executive council, describing the former governor as a politician with no recognizable political structure.