Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has called for the examination of President Muhammadu Buhari’s mental health status over the allegation by his wife, Aisha, that a cabal was controlling Aso Villa.

The coalition made the call in a statement yesterday signed by the first national vice spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere. The president’s consistent action of not fielding questions extempore from journalists intensified the group’s suspicion that two or three people had actually hijacked the presidency.

“A country of about 200 million people cannot be thriving under the situation of being in doubt of the mental stability of the man who holds their mandate to lead and who is seeking an extension of that mandate. The international community is also expressing similar doubt, hence the reactions in the economy through the withdrawal of their businesses from the country.

At no other particular time in the history of Nigeria has it witnessed the closure of the number of businesses as it happened in the almost four years of the Buhari presidency,” it said.CUPP demanded that a team of experts should handle the president’s health issue.

“It is on this premise that we demand an independent team of experts in mental health issues to examine President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed all other presidential candidates, to ascertain their mental stability before polling day, so that any person who does not pass the examination would not be allowed to participate in the election.

“We have also secured the assurance of the opposition coalition consensus candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to subject himself to any such medical exercise for the general interest of Nigeria.

“CUPP also calls on President Buhari to face the Nigerian media and stop holding them in disdain, as they are renowned professionals the world over for their expertise.

“How could a president not speak to any Nigerian media or journalist for over three years? How could a president hold his entire country’s media and citizens in such disdain that he speaks to them only through a crowd of spokespersons, many of who have questionable characters and mostly dish out fake news to citizens? Is it not to hide the mental status of the president that the yet-to-be-identified two or three people who have hijacked the presidency, according to the wife of the president, that the president has been directed not to speak outside written speeches?”

•Sourced from The Guardian report

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