Joda assisted me in running my office – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said the late elder statesman Ahmed Joda was a close confidant who assisted him in running his office right from his day as Head of State and as civilian president.

Buhari said this when he visited Yola, Adamawa State, to commiserate with the families of Ahmed Joda and Dr. Mahmud Tukur, who passed on recently.

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The president described Adamawa people as “dependable allies.”

Speaking at the palace of Lamido Adamawa, the president said he had been receiving valuable counsel from the late Joda since 1970s when he (Buhari) served as military governor of the North East while Dr Tukur served under his military administration.

“Since I became the military governor of the North East under the Obasanjo’s regime, to the time I was a minister, military Head of State and civilian president, Ahmed Joda had always been one of the people who assisted me in running any office I was holding without showing interest in making money or getting position.”

“Equally, Dr. Mahmud Tukur was a friend and classmate to my eldest nephew who is now the head of our family and he (Tukur) was one of the people I worked with as military Head of State.

“Adamawa people have been reliable allies. I don’t know the level of help they rendered to me because they do their best in any task I entrusted them with; that is why when I joined politics and returned in Agbada, I appointed one of them into a difficult task of the FCT Minister and despite being a young man, Alhamdulillahi, he has not let us down,” Buhari said.

Speaking earlier, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri thanked the president for taking time out of his tight schedule (and on a day his son was getting married in Kano) to pay the state a condolence visit, saying the president had demonstrated his love for the state.

“We ought to have been the ones to go and condole with you in Abuja because the families of Ahmed Joda and Mahmud Tukur are your bosom friends,” the governor stated.

Also in his remark, the Lamido Adamawa, Dr. Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, commended the president for the visit, wishing him safe journey back to Abuja via Kano.